\N AMERICAN TRANSPORT 



IN THE 



CRIMEAN WAR 



:APT. JOHN CODMAN 



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AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 
THE CRIMEAN WAR. 



JOHN CODMAN 

AUTHOR OF "THE ROUND TRIP," "TEN MONTHS IN 
BRAZII^," "WINTER SKETCHES EROM XHB; 

SADDi,E," e;tc. 



INTRODUCTION BY I. C. ROPES. 



NEW YORK ^ I 

BONNELL, SILVER & CO., 

24 West Twenty-Second Street. 






Copyrighte;d, 1896, 

BY 

BONN:eLI., vSII^VBR & CO. 



THIS I<ITT];E VOI,UME 
IS AFFECTlONATEI,Y INSCRIBED 

TO 

MY WIFE AND DAUGHTER, 

Mes Compagnons de Voyage. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Dedication 3 

Introduction 5 

Author's Preface — 9 

CHAPTER I. 

The old and the new Mediterranean trade — The pioneer 
steamship — Arrival at Marseilles — The cholera — 
Origin of the Crimean war — French hilarity suc- 
ceeded by disappointment 13 

CHAPTER II. 

The passage to Constantinople — Reminiscences of an- 
tiquity — Ashore in the Dardanelles — Disinterested 
kindness of Suleyman Pasha— Constantinople and its 
surroundings — The passage to the Crimea — The sea- 
ports and the battle grounds — Starvation at the 
English camp — French economy and hospitality. 29 

CHAPTER III. 

The mistake of the Allies in making their landing— The 
commencement of the siege and the misery attending 
it — Another passage from Marseilles — Narrow escape 
from foundering in a gale — Arrival at Kamiesh — The 
Monastery of St. George 51 



4 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The American and the French cuisine — A trip to the Sea 
of Azof — Contrasted scenes of peace and war — Van- 
dalism of the Allies at Kertch — Trading with a Pasha 
— The unsuccessful attack on Sebastopol — Panic at 
Kamiesh and Balaklava — Return to Marseilles — Trip 
to Algeria 68 

CHAPTBR V. 

Return again to the Crimea — Ravages of disease in the 
camps — French transport system compared with ours 
in the civil war — ^The Sisters of Charity — The capture 
of the Malakoff and Redan — A view of the ruins 
— Bomb-proof female curiosity 88 

CHAPTER VI. 

Entering the Turkish service — The Tm-k a man of his 
word — Good pay and little work — Our philosophic 
chief officer — The Pasha's bed-clothes — His friend- 
ship — No use for a propeller ii2 

CHAPTER VII. 
Hafiz Effendi and his harem 134 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Mustapha Pasha wide awake — We are hurried off to 
Eupatoria — A rescue in the Black Sea — A British 
frigate comes to our aid — Arrival at Eupatoria. . . 149 

CHAPTER IX. 

The blunder of a British General — A post-mortem held 
by Mr. Sears and some of his religious ideas — The 
eud of the war and comments on its results 176 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is witli great pleasure that I comply 
with the request of my cousin, Captain 
John Codman, to write a few lines by way 
of an introduction to this entertaining 
narrative of his experience in command 
of an American chartered transport in the 
Crimean War. 

That war was concluded forty years 
ago, and in the intervening period there 
have been four wars in Burope, three of 
them of great magnitude, and the other 
having been another contest between 
Russia and Turkey. It is probable that 
the Crimean War receives to-day but little 
attention from either historical or general 
students. But it is, in reality, a very 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

interesting war, for it is tlie connecting 
link between the old and the modern 
systems of warfare. Not only by the sub- 
stitution of steam for sails, and of iron 
for wood, is the change marked ; it is dis- 
tinctly to be perceived in the far more 
comprehensive and serious character which 
war has taken on since the days of the 
expedition to Sebastopol. Steam and iron 
are, in fact, but the symbols and illustra- 
tions of the spirit which dominates the 
nations of the present day, and insists 
upon the employment of every invention 
calculated to secure the greatest speed 
and the most unfailing certainty ; in short, 
the most conclusive results in the employ- 
ment of forces possessing far greater 
destructive powers than those known to 
Lord Raglan and General Todleben. 

It is, however, to wars conducted on the 
old-fashioned scale and in accordance with 



INTRODUCTTON. 7 

old-fashioned methods that we must look 
for that element of pictiiresqueness in war 
which has always so powerfully attracted 
the imagination of mankind, and the Cri- 
mean War was the last of the picturesque 
v/ars of the world. It was, moreover, un- 
usually rich in this element ; the com- 
mingling of races, nationalities, religions 
and customs in the contending parties ; 
the seat of the struggle, the Dardanelles, 
the Bosphorus, Constantinople, the Black 
Sea, with all their historical associations ;- 
the fact that, of the leaders of the con- 
tending armies, some had participated 
with distinction in the great Napoleonic 
wars of the early part of the century; 
these and similar things give to the Cri- 
mean War a character quite its own. 

The narrative of Captain Codman is not 
in any sense a history of this war, but it 
is valuable because it contains the observa- 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

tions of a disinterested witness of many 
of tlie incidents of tlie struggle. And the 
story is told witH a simplicity and natural- 
ness, wliicli, combined with the writer's 
genuine love of humor, cannot fail, I 
think, to make his modest contribution to 
the history of that period entertaining, 
suggestive, and well worth the attention 
of the public. 

John Codman Ropks. 

Boston, December i, 1896. 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



I HAVE tiLOUght it opportune to publisli 
tHis short narrative at a time when the 
Turkish question is so generally dis- 
cussed by the press. 

It is merely an account of events that 
occurred under my personal observation, 
with occasional references to their polit- 
ical significance. 

No change to suit present conditions 
has been made from the original notes, 
taken upon the spot forty years and more 
ago. I have spoken of the Turk as we 
found him then, not as he is represented 
to be now. 

At that time Christians of all denom- 
inations were protected by the govern- 



10 PREFACE. 

ment equally witli tlie MaHomedans. 
The Armenians, on account of their supe- 
rior intelligence, and greater aptitude for 
business than those of other sects, held 
offices of public trust, and many of them 
served in the army and navy. 

Competent authorities agree that the 
treatment of Christians in general by the 
Turkish government has not changed 
from that time to the present, that out 
of a population of four million Chris- 
tians, two millions of whom are Arme- 
nians, the proportion of officials is far 
greater than is that represented by all 
the Moslems in the empire, and that in 
ordinary civil life no distinction is made 
among the people because of their relig- 
ious faith. 

It must be evident, therefore, to any 
candid mind that the butcheries conse- 
quent upon dissensions in Asiatic Turkey 



PREFACE. II 

from whicii the Armenians have suffered 
more than the Turks, because as contest- 
ants they are fewer in number, are attrib- 
utable to other causes than that of relig- 
ious persecution. 

There is great danger, however, that 
the well-meant efforts of philanthropists 
may give religion a prominence in this 
controversy which does not belong to it. 
Once made a casus belll^ either by armed 
interference or by intemperate words of 
diplomacy, the universal slaughter of 
Christians of all denominations would 
ensue from a general uprising of Mahom- 
edans throughout Asia and Africa and 
the Bast Indian Islands, where they 
number more than 250,000,000, for it must 
be remembered that the Sultan is Caliph, 
and, as such, the head of the whole Mahom- 
edan Church, as well as the despotic ruler 
of his own dominions. 



12 PREFACE. 

The humanity that would prompt such 
inhumanity as this is as unchristian as it 
is impolitic. 

This suggestion is commended to the 
reflection of my readers as of more value 
than anything else they may find in fur- 
ther turning over the leaves of this book. 



AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 
THE CRIMEAN WAR. 



CHAPTER I. 

In tlie year 1854 the commercial ma- 
rine of tlie United States was at the height 
of its prosperity. Steam had not at that 
time become to any considerable extent a 
factor in the carriage of merchandise, and 
the whole trade of this country with the 
Mediterranean was carried on in sailing 
vessels, and those almost universally un- 
der the American flag. Passengers who 
desired to visit the shores of that sea were 

obliged, unless they had the inclination, 

13 



14 AN AMERICAN TRANS FOR T IN 

and time to spare to be wafted across 
by the white wings of the sailing craft of 
that day, to take a Cunard steamer for 
Liverpool, and thence to travel across 
England, the Straits of Dover, and the 
entire length of France, until they reached 
Marseilles. No merchant steamer from 
this country had ever passed through the 
Straits of Gibraltar. The feasibility of 
establishing a steamship line from New 
I York to Gibraltar and Marseilles first oc- 
' curred to the firm of N. L. McCready & 
Co., an enterprising shipping house on 
South Street, New York. With this in- 
tent they purchased the steamer " William 
Penn," and fitted her out as a pioneer. 
She was a small ship even in those days. 
Now, she would not be much too large for 
a quarter boat to be hoisted at the davits 
of the modern sea monsters. Still, she 
was an excellent sea-boat, although of only 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 15 

613 tons, and having been built for tbe 
line between Pbiladelpbia and Boston, ber 
accommodations for tv/enty or thirty pas- 
sengers were as comfortable and luxuri- 
ous as those of the British steamers. Her 
first trip was to be made under the most 
favorable conditions of surrimer weather, 
and it was confidently expected that every 
berth would be speedily taken, and that 
her small space for cargo would at once 
be availed of. §he was placed under my 
command, and in view of the demand for 
state-rooms, only a small cabin was re- 
served for myself, wife and child. She 
was advertised to sail in fifteen days from 
the 5th of May, not only in the New York 
papers, but likewise in those of Philadel- 
phia, Baltimore and Boston. To our in- 
tense chagrin, day after day passed with- 
out a single application for freight or 
passage, until I suggested to Mr. Mc- 



1 6 AN- AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

Cready tliat as his enterprise was likely 
to be a complete failure, lie had better 
withdraw the advertisements, and sell the 
ship, or find some other use for her. But 
he was a man of determination, as was 
afterwards proved when he established 
the Old Dominion Line to Richmond and 
made of it a triumphant success. " No," 
he said, '' we will not give it up. Take 
coal enough for your return voyage, and 
see what you can get in Marseilles to 
bring back to New York." This was 
done, and we started on the 20th of May 
without a single passenger or a pound of 
freight. The steamer was advertised in 
the Marseilles and Paris papers to take 
freight or passengers to New York, and 
there was not a solitary application for 
either. Korty-two years have since 
elapsed, and what a change ! American 
sailing ships have entirely disappeared 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 17 

from tHe Mediterranean and practically 
from all salt water excepting that whicli 
washes our coasts. The Mediterranean 
trade has increased to immense propor- 
tions and is now carried on almost en- 
tirely by steam. There are four great 
lines of steamships of from four to eight 
thousand tons, and innumerable tramps 
carrying thousands of passengers and 
millions of tons of freight, and earning 
for their owners wealth enough to pay 
the interest of our national debt. Not a 
single one of them is under our flag, 
simply because Congress persists in main- 
taining restrictive navigation laws that 
forbid us to own ships unless they are 
built at home at exorbitant prices, which 
preclude competition with other nations 
who adopt a more liberal policy. 

When we arrived at Marseilles the 

cholera was just commencing its work, 
3 



1 8 AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

and every other Mediterranean port placed 
vessels from tliat city in strict and long 
qnarantine. There was consequently 
nothing for any of ns to do, and nowhere 
for any of ns to go, and I was determined 
not to return to New York as we had come 
out, in ballast. So we all lay perforce 
huddled up in the docks under a broiling 
sun. The cholera was first said to be 
confined to the barracks and hospitals. 
Bvery effort was made by the authorities 
for a time to keep secret the advent of 
this unwelcome visitor ; but when the 
numerous funerals began to pass along 
the streets, when in the cafes and on the 
Bxchange men fell down in the agony of 
its grasp, concealment became a vain en- 
deavor. Then ceased the characteristic 
gaiety of the F'renchmen, and in its place 
came despondency and abject fear. Out 
of a city of 250,000 inhabitants 100,000 cf 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 19 

the survivors rushed to tlie country, those 
who could afford to do so by means of 
railroads and carriages, those who could 
not, on foot, and thus they might be daily 
seen hastening in crowds to encamp upon 
the hills, where, under the fierce ra3^s of 
the sun and the noxious dews of night, 
they died by thoiisands. In the city all 
was gloom and despair. Whole streets 
of shops were closed. Nature seemed to 
participate in the misery of man. For 
three months not a drop of rain fell from 
the heavens. Daily the lurid sun rose in 
the east to set at night in the burning 
west scorching in his progress all vegeta- 
tion, and drying up the streams or reduc- 
ing them to pools of stagnant water. 
The sympathy of man for his fellow-man 
was blunted and his heart beat only in 
fear for himself. Thus coward man 
trembled, and woman alone was brave, 



2 o AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

brave in tlie might of purity and of love. 
In tiie splendid mansion, in tlie wretched 
liovel, wherever disease and death were to 
be found, there too were to be seen those 
self-sacrificing Sisters of Charity minister- 
ing to the wants of the sick and giving 
the dying a foretaste of heaven in the 
companionship of angels upon earth. 
These are the genuine saints of the 
Catholic Church. 

As the autumn advanced the disease 
abated, and the panic-stricken refugees 
returned to their homes. Confidence was 
at length restored, and an instantaneous 
change came over the city. One would 
have supposed that death had never en- 
tered into the world, and that life would 
never go out of it. From the depth of 
misery the v\^hole population mounted 
to the pinnacle of mirth. This was 
French. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 21 

In the meantime tlie Crimean War 
was going on. Its progress is worthy the 
attention of those of ns who were so im- 
patient with what they considered the dila- 
tory proceedings of our armies at the time 
of the secession. This war had been for 
months and even years anticipated by 
France and Bngland. They both pos- 
sessed large standing armies fully equip- 
ped and disciplined, and their combined 
fleets exceeded those of all the world in 
ships, guns and men. All these existed in 
a time of profound peace. Yet at the date 
of which we are speaking, how little, or 
rather how much of nothing, had been 
accomplished ! As we pursue our narra- 
tive, let us note how much time was still 
to elapse before anything was done ; and 
as we corde to its close let us see if this 
tremendous armament effected anything, 
after all, worthy of its boasted efEiciency. 



22 AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

We shall find that we who had been sud- 
denly dragged into a strife which we 
deemed so unnatural as to be impossible, 
and were consequently totally unprepared 
for it, had nothing to be ashamed of in 
comparison. 

When their preparations were at last 
completed, and their fleets were already off 
the shores of the enemy, war was finally 
declared by France and England in March, 
1854. What had since been done ? The 
great Baltic fleets, which were to return 
ballasted with the guns of Cronstadt, had 
twice performed an evolution similar to that 
recorded, when '' The King of France 
with twice ten thousand men, marched up 
the hill and then marched down again," 
and nothing had been accomplished in the 
Black Sea excepting that the battle of the 
Alma, to which we shall presently refer, 
had just been fought. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 23 

It is well known that the ostensible 
cause of the difficulty between Russia and 
Turkey in the first instance was the pre- 
tended desire of the former to protect her 
co-religionists in the Turkish domains, 
and to secure to them equal rights with 
the other subjects of the Sultan which 
to all intents and purposes they already 
enjoyed. It was only a pretext to cover 
her ambitious designs. In the mirror 
of destiny she had long seen Turkey in 
her possession, and time has been the only 
question in the matter. She would un- 
doubtedly, if entirely successful, have 
solved the problem at once ; but she was 
unprepared for the emergency which was 
thrust upon her. Since the war, with 
capital loaned by her former foes, she has 
constructed lines of railroads by means 
of which, should they hereafter endeavor 
to thwart her schemes, she can concen- 



24 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

trate an overwlielmmg force to oppose 
them. 

Tlie fleet which left the Bosphorus in 
the summer of 1854, was known to carry 
a force destined to attack some part of 
the Russian territory in the Black Sea. 
It was generally supposed to be directed 
upon Odessa. The movement was con- 
ducted with much secrecy and skill, but 
it failed in its anticipated results from 
want of thorough organization and from a 
deplorable ignorance of the country it was 
intended to subdue. After various feints 
of attack upon other points, the course 
was finally changed to the Crimea, where 
the fleet arrived before the Russians could 
oppose a sufficient force to prevent the 
landing of the troops. They made, how- 
ever, a gallant resistance after the in- 
vaders had debarked. The whole of the 
small garrison of Sebastopol came out to 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 25 

meet tliem upon tlie heights of the Alma. 
There the first battle was fought. It was 
chronicled as the first great victory of the 
allies. On the other hand, the Russians 
justly regarded it as the first check upon 
them. It was reported in France, where 
we happened to be at the time, that Sebas- 
topol itself had fallen, and for a week 
people believed it. There was the most 
boisterous rejoicing. In Marseilles the 
affair v/as dramatized with incredible dis- 
patch. It was represented in the theatre 
before a delighted audience on the very 
night preceding the day on which was 
brought the contradictory intelligence. 
Then was exhibited another proof of the 
ups and downs of French character. As 
the monarch of the barnyard flaps his 
wings and crows on a bright sunny morn- 
ing, so the jubilant Frenchman strutted 
the boulevards, swung his cap and cried 



26 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

*' Vive la France ! Vive la gloire I " 
As the same proud bird after a storm 
of cold rain presses his pinions to his 
sides, utters his mournful caw and drags 
his drooping tail feathers in the mud, so 
the utterly confounded Frenchman, when 
the storm of disappointment overwhelmed 
him, vented his " Sacres^'* withdrew his 
forehead into the crown of his hat, dropped 
his jaw under his shirt collar, and tried to 
hide himself in his boots. 

The Russians, after vainly opposing a 
superior force, had retired in good order 
to Sebastopol, and immediately com- 
menced throwing up those entrench- 
ments which for eleven months after- 
wards bade defiance to the most un- 
paralleled energy of attack. The town 
was already impregnably fortified against 
all attempts from the sea, as the fleets 
shortly afterwards discovered on the 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 27 

occasion of their ineffectual bombard- 
ment. 

Tlie news of tlie battle of tbe Alma and 
its want of entire success created an in- 
tense excitement in France and Bngland. 
It had been imagined that this expedition 
into the Black Sea would have been suf- 
ficient to disperse the Russian forces from 
its shores, but all at once the Western 
powers awoke to the seriousness of their 
mistake. The capture of Sebastopol, 
though of course exceedingly desirable, 
as the destruction of the Russian fleet 
would have ensued, was not of abso- 
lute importance. But it was now more 
than ever determined upon as a matter of 
pride. It could have been blockaded, 
and all the other operations of the war 
might have been carried on nearly as well 
by that means as by the final conquest of 
only a portion of the town. Thus, many 



28 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN- 

tliousands of lives miglit have been spared, 
but the pride of France and England was 
toucbed, and tbey were determined to 
enter Sebastopol, tbougb obliged to wade 
through the blood of their own children. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 29 



CHAPTER II. 

The " William Penn" was ttie first 
transport under a foreign flag chartered 
by tlie Frencii government. We left Mar- 
seilles on the first of November with a 
cargo of stores and ammunition and a de- 
tachment of troops for the Crimea. With 
pleasant weather, v/hich is rare even in 
the Mediterranean at that season, we 
passed through the Straits of Bonifacio 
between Corsica and Sardinia, and then 
through the Straits of Messina, lighted by 
the fires of Stromboli and Etna. Thence 
steering across for the Morea, we rounded 
Cape Matapan and entered the blue ^gean 
Sea. Everywhere the landmarks of the 
past greeted our eyes. There were the 
lands and the v/aters of great deeds made 



30 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

infinitely greater by the poetry of history, 
for poetry is the history of Greece and 
Troy. As we look back upon them through 
such telescopes, truly the distance of time 
lends enchantment to the view, and the 
eye gains delight by viewing them with a 
lens which softens their rougher outlines. 
Mythology, the poetical religion of the 
ancients, is more worthy of study than 
the story of their everyday life. The one, 
though false, is full of charm ; the other, 
though real, was too much like that which 
we now see around us. Homer and Vir- 
gil were the best historians of those early 
days. Homer borrowed wreaths from the 
skies to adorn the brows of such bar- 
barians as Hector and Achilles. Virgil 
called from them a goddess to give birth 
to the filibustering ^neas, and chiselled 
Ijis black inamorata into the form and 
features of an angel. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 31 

At dark on the evening of the 9th we 
passed between the Island of Tenedos and 
the plains of Troy. Afterwards repeated- 
ly we saw them in broad daylight. Then 
a black rock and a barren shore were dis- 
played to rnin the picture imagination 
had painted of besieging Greeks and be- 
leaguered Trojans. 

We were about entering the Darda- 
nelles, the ancient Hellespont. It should 
not have been attempted in a foggy night, 
especially as the narrow and crooked 
Strait was unlighted. But our orders 
were imperative to follow the French gun- 
boat which bore us company. The result 
of this temerity was that we both found 
ourselves snugly ashore before morning. 
We grounded on Nagara Point, the very 
spot where Leander landed when he swam 
the Hellespont, and where Leander had 
more occasion to be pleased in getting 



32 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

ashore. We were unable at tlie time to 
back off, but fortunately the ground was 
soft, and no damage was eventually done 
to either of the ships. It was, after all, 
perhaps a fortunate accident. Had not 
this detention occurred, we should in the 
ordinary course of the voyage have been 
off Balaklava in the destructive gale of the 
fourteenth of November. 

It was the occasion of my first acquaint- 
ance with a nation from whose people I 
have since received much kindness, and 
at no time a greater proof of their gener- 
ous disposition than in this instance. As 
soon as morning dawned and the ship was 
discovered from the town, the Pasha of the 
Dardanelles came off in person to offer 
his assistance, which was, of course, grate- 
fully accepted. In less than an hour a 
fleet of boats was alongside discharging 
cargo to lighten the ship, the troops being 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 33 

provided for in tlie Turkish barracks on 
shore. All tke men that could be ad- 
vantageously employed were sent to ex- 
pedite the removal of the cargo. The 
Pasha himself remained on board most of 
the time. His kind expressions of sym- 
pathy were really consoling, and when at 
last the steamer floated off, his satisfac- 
tion seemed equal to my own. Suleyman 
Pasha was a strict observer of the forms, 
and precepts too, of his religion. When 
the hour of prayer came he turned his 
face toward the tomb of the prophet, and 
prostrated himself in devotion upon the 
deck. At evening for a few moments 
work was suspended, while all the people 
bowed in prayer. Suleyman dined with 
us every day. Upon the principle of not 
making one's brother to offend, I had 
given directions to exclude wine from the 
table. Think, then, of my astonishment 



34 A^ AMERICA N TRA NSPOR T IN 

at a gentle hint from the Pasha as to 
champagne ! It was, of course, immedi- 
ately produced. Upon my remarking 
that it had not been offered before on ac- 
count of regard to what I supposed to be 
his religious scruples, he replied with an 
air of perfect sincerity, ^' Wine was for- 
bidden by the prophet ; not champagne. 
Champagne did not exist in his day ; how 
then could he have forbidden it ? Mar- 
shallah ! God is great," continued Suley- 
man, smoothing his beard and soothing 
his conscience. *' Pass the bottle." 

While the ship was reloading I visited 
him at his house, meeting with a most 
cordial reception, and was there permitted 
to see the Turkish gentleman in his ha- 
rem. This word has been the subject of 
the grossest misapprehension. The ha- 
rem means the home ; and the home of the 
Turk, though different in many respects 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 35 

from ours, is equally sacred. The Turk- 
ish woman is by no means always the de- 
graded creature that many have supposed 
her to be, but she is often well educated 
and seldom unable to read. She is a faith- 
ful wife (though frequently not the only 
wife), and it may seem astonishing to 
many women in other lands who cannot 
live peaceably with their husbands, hav- 
ing them all to themselves, that these 
women can be happy not only in their 
husband's society, but in that of each 
other. In a state of polygamy, woman is 
not so lightly esteemed by man, but man 
is held in higher estimation by woman. 
We have scarcely a right to reproach the 
Turks for practising a polygamy that is 
cumulative while the laxity of cur divorce 
laws permits it in a consecutive form 
among ourselves. 

After a detention of three days caused 



36 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

by our mishap, we were reloaded and 
ready to proceed. It had been a period 
of incessant work day and night, such as 
we could not have accomplished with our 
own boats and crew in many days. 
When about to leave, Suleyman Pasha 
was on board. I asked him what was the 
amount of expense incurred, that I might 
pay it by a draft on Constantinople. Seiz- 
ing my hand and placing it upon his 
heart, he replied, *' God pays me, my 
brother." I shall never forget that Chris- 
tian Mahomedan. 

Issuing from the Dardanelles we en- 
tered upon the Sea of Marmora, a salt 
water lake about one hundred and twenty 
miles in length. Leaving soon after mid- 
night, on the evening of the next day we 
were within a few miles of Constanti- 
nople, when the heavy gale came upon us 
which was still more violent in the Black 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 37 

Sea, and was the cause of terrible destruc- 
tion of life and property. We were 
obliged to haul off, as we were on the lee 
shore, and to hold our own were forced to 
carry all the steam that our boilers could 
bear. The night was one of great anx- 
iety ; but, as after all nights of affliction, 
joy came in the morning. The gale 
abated ; the angry waves fell quietly again 
upon the bosom of the Marmora, over 
which the sun rose in his full blaze of liv- 
ing light and shone back again from the 
gilded domes and minarets of the queen 
city of the Bast. There she lay before us, 
exceeding all the splendor with which im- 
agination had clothed her, decked with 
the jewelry of her first love, and her ra- 
visher. The daughter and rival of Rome, 
her beauty, matured in Oriental luxury, 
soon eclipsed her mother's fading charms. 
Mistresses of the Western and Eastern em- 



38 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

pires in the days of tlieir glory, now in 
tlie days of tlieir decadence, both so low 
in the scale of nations. We ronnded 
slowly the point where stands the old Se- 
raglio, at whose name Christian hair has 
been wont to stand on end, passing so 
closely under its windows that had a faith- 
less sultana been dropped at the moment 
we might have caught her upon our decks. 
The practice of making such useless dis- 
position of women, however, is not in 
vogue in our days. 

In the harbor it v^^as a busy scene. 
Light caiques propelled by lusty oarsmen 
were dancing about on every side, inter- 
spersed with boats from foreign and 
Turkish men-o'-war and merchantmen, 
and as we ran up the Turkish flag and 
fired a salute, we received in all tongues 
cheers of welcome. 

The first appearance of the American 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 39 

flag in the fleet, although it floated 
from the peak of a transport steamer, was 
evidently hailed as an indication that our 
national sympathy was enlisted in the 
cause. At subsequent times, under a 
summers sky, the Golden Horn was 
found more enchanting; but the first 
impressions of Stamboul and Pera, as they 
towered above us on either side in marble 
columns, are the longest to endure. And 
yet at any season the whole charm of 
Constantinople is lost when once upon 
the shore. The wretched and filthy con- 
dition of the streets, especially in the 
Christian quarters, creates a feeling of in- 
tense disgust. Would you visit this far- 
famed city, remember the whited sepul- 
chres. Observe it well on every side, but 
within look not. From the deck let your 
eye and imagination rove from minaret 
to minaret, and thence wander to the 



40 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

natural scenery wliicli gives them their 
charm. The Bosphorus, the Golden 
Horn, and the Sea of Marmora, encircling 
the picturesque architecture of temples 
and kiosks, afford a perpetual scene for 
admiration and delight. Well do I re- 
member one morning when the declina- 
tion of the sun brought him at his rising 
directly over the hoary summits of the dis- 
tant hills, and the sudden change from 
gray twilight to blazing day, as from 
thence he threw abroad his spreading 
beams on heaven and earth and sea, light- 
ing such a picture of nature and art, till 
every feature was so lovely that it would 
have been marred by the contrast of any 
shade. But evening has a charm above 
that of the day. As it draws on every one 
quits his toil, if toil it can be called where 
there is such general indolence. The 
lazy Turk, the ever-joyous Greek, the 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 41 

sly Armenian, and even tlie grasping 
Jew, all seek for recreation then. Hun- 
dreds of caiques are seen shooting over 
the waters to places of resort upon the 
Bosphorus, the Islands of the Marmora, 
or the Sweet Waters which lie at the ex- 
tremity of the Golden Horn. 

As we afterwards lay at the navy yard, 
how often have we seen these happy 
parties returning. Nature painted a liv- 
ing picture ; the moon threw shadows 
of tall cypresses and taper masts upon 
the silver mirror, its polished surface 
broken only by the silent dip of oars. 
The stillness of the hour was stiller as it 
seemed to be listening to the dream-like 
music of the lute and tambourine, while 
the veil of mist which nightly shrouds 
the waters hung like a thin gauze over 
the fairy-like turrets of the city. 

Receiving renewed orders from the 



42 AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

agents of the French, government, we 
proceeded up the Bosphorus and entered 
the Black Sea. After the battle of the 
Alma, when the allies had discovered 
that Sebastopol was not so easily to be 
captured as they had imagined, they 
made their preparations to invest it. 
For this purpose they took advantage of 
convenient harbors to land their muni- 
tions and troops. A nearly equilateral 
triangle may be supposed, having for its 
points Sebastopol, Balaklava and Kam- 
iesh. The first was occupied by the 
Russians, the English took possession 
of the second, and the French of the 
third. The area of this triangle served 
during the war for the outposts of the 
Russians and the encampments of the 
allies, and the neighborhood on the inland 
side was the great battlefield on which 
all the subsequent actions were fought. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 43 

Balaklava is completely land-locked, 
having an exceedingly narrow and crooked 
entrance, wkicli makes it when entered 
one of the best harbors in the world. 
But it is very small. This did not seem 
an objection to it at that time, for no 
idea was then entertained of the extensive 
use to which it would afterwards be ap- 
plied. The English accordingly, with 
the consent of the French, appropriated 
it for their vessels. The disadvantage 
arising from this error was proved first in 
the terrible hurricane of November 14th, 
in which so many English transports, 
unable to find shelter in the inner harbor, 
were wrecked upon the rock-bound coast. 
At the same time the French loss was 
slight, their harbor being sufficient to re- 
tain all their ships. Subsequently I have 
seen twelve hundred sail of vessels safely 
moored within it. We were ordered to 



44 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

Kamiesh, and arrived tliere after a pas- 
sage of a day and a half, the distance 
being three hundred and fifty miles 
from Constantinople. 

I have thus with digressions not a few, 
gone over the ground from Marseilles to 
the Crimea, and as the same passage was 
afterwards repeatedly made, the narrative 
of one may suffice for all. At the time 
of our arrival there prevailed the famine 
and distress which the survivors of the 
English army still hold in sad remem- 
brance. There was absolute starvation 
in their camp, while at four or five miles' 
distance provisions were rotting upon the 
beach. Much has been said of the mis- 
management of the British government 
and of the superiority of the French com- 
missariat. There is a certain degree of 
truth in this, but the neglect was not so 
extreme as has generally been supposed. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 45 

The Bnglish made many mistakes. Their 
first and greatest arose from a misappre- 
hension of the enemies they had to deal 
with — the Russians and the Russian cli- 
mate. A summer's cruise was projected 
to capture the little town of Sebastopol 
and to return with the guns of its fortress 
at about the same time that those from 
Cronstadt were expected to arrive.. But 
before they accomplished this part of the 
undertaking, the other part being in- 
definitely postponed, they were obliged to 
carry a great many more guns there. 
They supposed that a few miserable Tar- 
tars, the abject slaves of the Czar, would 
be eager to hail them as deliverers. But 
they caught Tartars that they did not ex- 
pect. They found that patriotism was as 
ardent and self-sacrificing among the in- 
habitants of the Crimea as among those of 
any other lands that they had before 



46 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

endeavored to conquer. THe lesson of 
Bunker Hill had been forgotten. No 
people should be despised who have their 
own soil to defend. 

Added to this motive for resistance there 
was a determined spirit of religious enthu- 
siasm to meet, for the Russians had been 
taught that the war was waged against 
their Church. ^' God, and your native 
land ! " the battle-cry of Bozzaris, nerved 
likewise their arms for the defence of 
their inheritance. 

The English were unfortunate in the 
selection of Balaklava for other reasons 
besides the smallness of its harbor. It 
was at a greater distance from their camp 
than was Kamiesh from the headquarters 
of the French, and the road to it was 
chiefly of clay. While therefore the 
French managed with difficulty to keep 
up communication with their port, that of 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 47 

the English was nearly cut off. !Four 
miles was sometimes a day's journey for a 
man on foot. The road was packed with 
animals that had died in their tracks. 
Under such circumstances it was abso- 
lutely impossible to transport sufficient 
provisions for an army. While the 
French barely succeeded in doing it on 
account of a better road and a shorter dis- 
tance, the English could not do it at all. 
There was another reason for theif 
greater suffering, which observation war- 
rants me in believing important. A 
Frenchman can live upon what is starva- 
tion to an Englishman ; he can adapt 
himself to short allowance as no other 
mortal can. But an Englishman remem- 
bers his roast beef and his beer, and if he ] 
cannot get them, he will growl and lie^/' 
down and die. Three or four French- 
men can live upon the rations of one 



48 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

Bnglishman, and be more jolly upon 
their empty stomachs than he would be 
with a tight waistband. When every- 
thing else fails, they can live upon 
ragouts made of remembrances of the 
past and seasoned with hopes of good 
times to come. 

Once after a toilsome tramp to the Eng- 
lish headquarters, my purser and I entered 
the tent of an officer with whom we were 
acquainted. Woebegone he looked, as he 
gave us a grouty welcome. " Come in," 
said he ; " sit down. I wish I had some- 
thing to offer you, but I have not. Ex- 
pected a dozen of porter and a pair ,of 
fowls up to-day. Couldn't have cooked 
the fowls if they had come. No coal. 
However, might have lived a day or two 
on the porter, but done out of that too. 
Infernally miserable, by Jove ! " And 
so he was. He looked it all. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 49 

Feeling little inclined to accept the 
only hospitality lie had to offer — that 
of a camp stool, — we pursued our way 
tediously to the French camp, where 
our gay friend, Lieut. Courtois, was 
quartered. Before reaching his tent we 
heard a snatch from an opera. With what 
empressement he rushed to embrace us, 
invited us to dine, insisted upon it, and 
sent for some of his comrades to meet his 
guests ! His larder was scarcely better 
stocked than that of the Englishman, 
which had nothing in it. But roots were 
grubbed up and a fire was made, some 
rough boards were laid out, and a clean 
cloth spread upon them. On came the 
soup, hot, at any rate, if it was homoeo- 
pathic. And in the other courses, which 
were numerous, beans, the material of the 
soup, were disguised in infinite variety 
with such skill that they served for fish, 



50 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

roast, entremets^ and dessert. I am sure 
that we had salad of something ; perhaps 
it was an old green silk umbrella. A 
little red wine was eked out with water, 
upon which we all pretended to be excited 
as we drank the health of the Bmperor. 
Beans again — as, alas ! too often with us 
at home — served for coffee, and my jolly 
friends after dinner tramped along with 
us on the road for a mile, imagining we 
were all on the boulevards, and sharpened 
their remembrances of departed joys by 
addressing every one they met as Made- 
moiselle. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 



CHAPTER III. 

With the imperfect geograpiiical knowl- 
edge of the country, which has been 
noted, and with not the most remote idea 
of spending the winter there, the . allies 
had entirely neglected preparations for it. 
The rainy season came upon them sud- 
denly. Hence the deplorable condition 
which resulted from not having con- 
structed roads over which to transport 
their provisions. Not having the happy 
faculty of adaptation inherent in the 
French, the English starved until a rail- 
road was brought out from home. Then 
John Bull had enough to eat and he was 
contented. Without the bounding im- 
petuosity of his ally he has a bull-dog 



52 AN AMERICAN- TRANSPORT IN 

courage when cornered, and lie never 
loses it. He marches up to the cannon's 
mouth, and meets a death which has no 
fears for him equal to those of a hungry 
life. 

The great battles of Balaklava and In- 
kerman had been fought, each chronicled 
in Bnglish history as victories, although 
the former was a decided triumph of the 
Russians. From the results of both, all 
parties were satisfied that the contest was 
not to be decided by pitched battles, but 
that it was to be a work of siege, and 
thenceforward with occasional skirmishes 
the science of attack and defence occupied 
their chief attention. 

It had never been anticipated by the 
Russians that the south side of Sebastopol 
would be exposed to an enemy. It was 
already fortified to an extent that would 
prove impregnable from the sea, while 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 53 

the north side, to which they eventually 
retired, continued impregnable to the end 
of the war. It may therefore be truly 
said that the fortress of Sebastopol has 
never been taken. The fleet moored in 
the harbor was at first almost the only 
protection from any attack from the south, 
till the wonderful genius of Todleben 
threw up the earthworks of the Malakoff , 
the Redan and the outer forts while the 
allies were deliberating upon a plan of 
operations. 

Had they landed first at Balaklava 
and Kamiesh, they might have taken 
the city with ease, but they could not 
have held it even then, as the north 
side commanded it. The Russians always 
would have been perfectly secure upon 
that side to which they eventually re- 
tired. Their efforts were now directed to 
the possible salvation of the city and the 



54 AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

fleet. Sebastopol never cotild have been 
completely invested witH less tlian half a 
million of men. Consequently roads were 
kept open at all times to bring them 
reinforcements and provisions. Their 
great difficulty was in getting these from 
a distance, and their principal loss of men 
was occasioned by fatigue upon the road 
in the winter season. Many more per- 
ished in this way than in the defence of 
the town. 

Meanwhile the allies commenced the 
work of the trenches. It will be readily 
understood, especially by those who have 
had sad experiences in our Civil War, 
that it was impossible for a body of 
men without cover to march several miles 
towards a fortified city, dragging with 
them their siege train with which they 
expected to batter down its walls. It 
was necessary to travel in a ditch, and 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 55 

that not a straight one, whicli would Have 
been exposed to a raking fire. These 
ditches or trenches were accordingly dug 
in a zig-zag manner, so that, nautically 
speaking, the besiegers could " work up 
at short tacks." The dirt was thrown up 
on the side next to the city, in order to 
afford additional cover, and the whole with 
the embankment was of sufficient depth 
to protect the troops who passed along. 
This trenchwork was the severest trial 
they were called upon to endure. Added 
to the inclemency of the season was the 
necessity of night work to prevent the 
enemy from taking accurate aim. Not- 
withstanding this, many bombs fell in the 
midst of the working parties, and the ex- 
plosions were awfully fatal. Wherever 
heads were shown in the course of their 
work, they were exposed to a rain of 
bullets. 



56 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

But all tliis was as notliing com- 
pared to tlie cold and wet wliicli brought 
upon tliem fevers and cholera, enemies 
more to be dreaded than the Russians. 
Tedious and slow was their progress as 
they met with rocky soil, and as the 
heavy rains nearly drowned them in their 
holes. Still they worked on, continu- 
ally expecting sorties which were almost 
nightly made. Anxiously they waited 
for the dawn which would give a little 
relief to the miserable survivors of the 
night, who could then drag their wearied, 
stiffened limbs to their tents. Even there 
their covering was little better than the 
open air, like their bed on the ground, 
chill and damp. No consolation was 
theirs that they were fighting for their 
country's sake ; they were hired by their 
governments to fight for what they knew 
not, and to die with curses upon them in 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 57 

the cold embrace of tlie soil wliicH tliey 
had invaded. It was only in the delirium 
of fever that happiness existed, when the 
spirit transported from the wretched body 
saw and tasted sumptuous fare, wandered 
in the green fields of boyhood, or reclined 
upon the luxurious couch of ease, was 
clasped in a mother's fond arms, or re- 
ceived again the long remembered kiss of 
love. Happy was he who did not awake 
from his dreams to feel once more the 
reality of woe ! 

It was no pleasure for us to visit the 
camps and trenches where sights of misery 
were so constantly present. Curiosity 
was soon satisfied, and we realized that 
glory bought at such prices was dearly 
bought indeed. The condition of the 
Turks was in some respects more pitiable 
than that of their allies. No one seemed 
to care for them ; for their ignoble 



58 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

retreat at Balaklava they were heartily 
despised by their friends as well as by 
their enemies, and till they redeemed their 
character at Bupatoria, were treated with 
scorn and neglect. I have actually seen 
a mule and a Turk harnessed together to 
a cart, and a Frenchman riding -upon it 
and whipping up the team ! 

Such was the condition of the armies 
before Sebastopol at the close of Decem- 
ber, 1854. Afterwards the state of things 
became worse as the rigor of the season 
increased. 

The troops subsisted mostly on " hard 
tack," and on every return from Constan- 
tinople we bought up all the fresh bread 
the bakers could supply, so that, although 
on the passage it became somewhat stale, 
it was eagerly sought for at any price we 
might choose to demand, and it is a satis- 
faction to remember that the price de- 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 59 

manded was not exorbitant. On the 
contrary, it was a sufficient reward to be 
able to contribute to tbe relief of tbe poor 
fellows wbo were so sadly in need. 

In this connection I cannot forbear to 
mention tbe delicacy of tbe French Inten- 
dant, which was carried to such an absurd 
extreme, that he refused to dine on board it 
our abundant and comparatively luxuri- 
ous table lest an unworthy motive should 
be attributed to him. I can truly say 
that in all my intercourse with the busi- 
ness officers of the government I never 
saw the least sign of bribery or corruption. 
I believe that nearly all the money dis- 
bursed by France, nominally for the ex- 
penses of the war,was actually expended for 
that purpose. I wish that the same could 
be said of my experience in the transport 
service of our Civil War, to prosecute 
which an enormous national debt was in- 



6o AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

curred — no small part of it for individual 
benefit. 

Tlie Frenclimen were determined in all 
cases to get value received for wliat they 
paid out, and with this end in view they 
kept us so busily at work that towards the 
close of that winter I was glad to get an 
order to proceed to Marseilles, where it 
was found necessary and convenient to 
make extensive repairs to boilers and ma- 
chinery. These having been completed, 
we renewed our accustomed routine of 
the transport service, leaving Marseilles 
deeply laden with shells and other war 
materials in the hold, four hundred sol- 
diers in the between-decks, and the upper 
deck encumbered fore and aft with horse 
stalls. 

We had scarcely left the harbor when 
a furious mistral burst upon us. Down 
it came from the mountains, over the 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 6i 

plains and into the Gulf of Lyons, where 
it had full play for its fury. The wind 
was dead aft, and we scudded before 
it with a full head of steam, to keep out 
of the way of the continually rising seas. 
These at length were too much for us, as 
they broke over the stern and either quar- 
ter flooding the decks and pouring down 
into the engine-room and the quarters of 
the troops, and finding their way into the 
hold. Some of the horse-stalls fetched 
away, and two of the horses were pitched 
through the skylight upon the heads of 
the cylinders, necessitating a stop of the 
engines until we could hoist them out and 
throw them overboard. 

Doubtless those officers and soldiers 
afterwards marched up without fear or 
trembling to storm the ramparts of Sebasto- 
pol, but now they were utterly demoralized. 
They had been seasick, but were seasick 



62 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

no longer. Fright effectually took the 
place of the mal de mer. 

It was indeed a critical situation. I 
dared not round the ship to, in order to 
bring her head to the wind, in which posi- 
tion she would have been comparatively 
safe, lest we should be swamped in the 
evolution. So we kept on running, the 
water gaining on us, until it got nearly 
even with the furnace fires, in spite of all 
that steam pumps and hand pumps could 
do. Recourse was then had to bailing with 
the deck buckets and with such as we 
could extemporize. One important effect 
of this process was that the panic was 
overcome, as the soldiers were forced 
into a bucket brigade and there was some- 
thing to occupy their minds. The fire- 
men steadily stuck to their duty, although 
they were knee-deep in water. 

At last the fierceness of the gale mod- 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. d^ 

erated, tlie seas subsided, and we went on 
our way rejoicing, over smooth water and 
under sunny skies. I made a little speecli 
to les braves miliiaires^ thanking them for 
the service they had rendered to them- 
selves and to the ship, and ordered a 
double allowance of cognac for them. 
Then they cheered me as a " brave com- 
manda7it^^ and we were all happy because 
we had not been drowned. 

When we reached Kamiesh we found 
that it had changed its appearance since 
we left it at the close of the winter. In 
place of the outdoor accommodations, a 
town had sprung up at the head of the Bay. 
It was like San Francisco in its youth. 
The story of gains to be derived from the 
wants of the armies had flown to all parts 
of Europe like those of the gold discov- 
eries in California, and there was a general 
rush to secure a portion of the prize. The 



64 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

new and heterogeneous population was 
composed mostly of Greeks, Maltese, and 
Jews. 

As the season advanced the roads 
had become more passable, and we im- 
proved the opportunity to ride about the 
plateau. There was only one carriage 
in Kamiesh, an old Russian drosky, a 
machine resembling a stage-coach with 
wheels and no body. I had hired this 
vehicle, to give my family a drive to Bala- 
klava, a distance of eight miles, for the 
price of twenty-five dollars. Refresh- 
ments upon the road were also costly. 

We passed the residence of Lord Rag- 
lan, an old farmhouse which his lord- 
ship would consider unfit for his horses 
at home, but it was a palace here sur- 
rounded by trees and vines. They were 
the only trees and vines that had been 
suffered to remain. . Everything else of 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 65 

the kind had been cut down or rooted up 
for fuel. The climate does not differ 
much from that of New England, but the 
want of shade rendered the summer heat 
insupportable. 

Balaklava, like Kamiesh, had wonder- 
fully improved in appearance and com- 
fort, but its crowded state soon made it 
a scene of greater suffering in summer 
than in winter. Surrounded by high 
hills and deprived of the circulation of 
air, the cholera made fearful havoc among 
the shipping and the inhabitants. 

On our return to Kamiesh we deviated 
from the direct road to visit the Monastery 
of St. George. The religious character 
of this institution had preserved it and its 
grounds from the general devastation of 
the country around. Upon an eminence 
of six hundred feet overlooking the 
sea, whose waves were beating at the 



66 AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

base of the cliff, it was at any time a 
picturesque object, but was now more 
attractive tban ever as an oasis in tlie 
desert of war. Here some of the clergy 
bad found a refuge, where they passed 
their time in devotions, doubtless offer- 
ing fervent prayers for peace to de- 
scend upon their unhappy land. Their 
sad and careworn faces seemed to speak 
of sickened hearts and of hopes long de- 
ferred. We attended service in the Cha- 
pel, where the mournful cadence of their 
voices chanting in an unknown tongue, 
seemed to be a true interpretation of the 
language of their souls. 

A lady of rank, from whom the invaders 
had wrested her property and whose man- 
sion they had destroyed, whose husband 
was their prisoner in a distant land, had 
been afforded by the magnanimous foes who 
were waging this war of civilization, a place 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 67 

in the sanctuary to die. The only luxury 
she had enjoyed for months was that now 
upon her deathbed, in accents of broken 
French, she could tell her sorrows to one 
of her own sex, who came not from the 
land of her enemies, and thus could find 
consolation in mingled tears. Beautiful 
as was the place, the sad thoughts these 
scenes inspired, more sad than those of 
battlefields, made us not reluctant to 
leave it. 



6S AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 



CHAPTER IV. 

ThK spring montlis were chiefly occu- 
pied in short and frequent trips between 
Kamiesh and Constantinople, and the 
business came to be almost as monotonous 
as that of a Long Island Sound steam- 
boat. It was once, however, varied by a 
delightful trip to Yenikale and Kertch in 
the Sea of Azof, whither we were sent with 
supplies for the French and Turkish troops 
left there to garrison those towns recently 
captured from the Russians. We carried 
a small detachment of troops and a few 
officers whose society was most agreeable. 
It was an exquisite pleasure to see them 
feasting at the table. Their great desire 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 69 

was that some accident migHt happen to 
the machinery, so that they could have 
time to recuperate from their long enforced 
starvation. 

I will here take occasion to say a 
word about our misine. The terms of 
our charter were in brief fifty thousand 
francs per month and our coal. Added 
to this was a tariff for board and lodging 
of the soldiers and officers. The allow- 
ance for the soldiers was one franc and 
sixty centimes per diem, and that for offi- 
cers was graded according to their rank, 
from three francs upward to five francs, 
and six francs for a general, as if a 
general could eat more than a subaltern. 

It is needless to tell those of my readers 
who have voyaged on passenger steamers 
that there was '' no money " in this. On 
the contrary, it entailed considerable loss, 
but it was submitted to in consideration 



70 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

of the general profit derived from tlie 
wliole contract. There was, moreover, a 
curious clause at the end of the charter 
party which was very verbose and minute 
in its specifications. It was this : " In 
case of disputes or misunderstandings 
between the government and the captain, 
the government shall be the sole arbiter." 
After all, that did not differ very much 
from the way in which our government 
proposed to arbitrate questions connected 
with the Monroe Doctrine. 

On the first passage from Marseilles I 
essayed to be as liberal as possible in 
regard to the table. There was provided 
a good solid breakfast of tea and coffee, 
beefsteak, chicken, omelets, and buck- 
wheat cakes ; for dinner at two o'clock, 
we had soup, fish, roast meats, pies and 
puddings ; and for supper, tea, and plenty 
of cold meat and other accessories. The 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 71 

soldiers were as amply fed as the crew, 
and it is sufficient to say tliat tliere was 
abundance fore and aft, and tlie receipts 
did not amount to one-half of the ex- 
penses. Strange as it may appear, there 
was universal discontent. 

On our return from this first voyage 
to Marseilles I showed my agreement to 
a popular restaurateur, and he said, " I 
ask nothing more. I will take that con- 
tract and give bonds to satisfy the gov- 
ernment." His proposition was accepted, 
and in order not to have two culinary 
regimes in progress at the same time, I 
paid off and discharged all my own crew 
excepting the chief officer and chief en- 
gineer, shipped a French one, and agreed 
to pay for myself, my family, the purser, 
and the two remaining officers the tariff 
rate for generals. In short, although we 
still flew the American flag at our peak, 



72 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

we became to all intents and purposes 
Frenclimen, so that we almost forgot our 
native tongue. 

This arrangement worked admirably. 
There was coffee early in the morning, a 
dejeuner h la fourchette at noon, a dinner 
of an infinite variety of small dishes with 
abundance of vin ordinaire at six o'clock, 
and a cup of tea in the evening. The res- 
taurateur made a little fortune out of his 
contract ; the government was satisfied ; 
the officers, soldiers and sailors and fire- 
men were satisfied ; the purser and I, re- 
lieved from all care, were better satisfied 
than any of them, and the only objection 
to it all came from the innate cravings 
of half a dozen American stomachs. 

Our route along the coast of the Crimea, 
in an easterly direction, was picturesque 
and beautiful. The besom of war had not 
swept over the green fields and vineyards, 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 73 

for the civilizing allies had not there set 
their feet. There was not a point of land 
for the whole distance which we could not 
have approached within a stone's throw. 
Still, in order to keep out of the range 
of masked batteries and rifles, prudence 
dictated a proper degree of caution. 
^ Around the Bosphorus everything is 
beautiful. Here beauty lay at the feet of 
sublimity. In the distance were rugged 
mountains and abrupt precipices seeming 
to frown upon the lovely landscape below, 
yet yielding it protection from the cold 
northern blasts and sending down streams 
in sparkling cascades to fertilize the 
valleys. Vineyards and orchards lined 
the coast, and in the background were 
immense fields of waving grain. There 
were hamlets above and towns below, 
churches and palaces here and there, 
everything denoting prosperity and 



74 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

happiness. The smile of the Almighty 
had not yet faded from this garden of His 
earth. What a change to us from a few 
hours past, and what a change was to be 
in a few hours to come ! 

Yenikale, the place of our destination, 
is a small seaport situated at the en- 
trance of the Sea of Azof. While the 
cargo was discharging we rode across the 
country to Kertch, a distance of nine 
miles. We entered the city with a feeling 
of melancholy most oppressive. There 
but a few weeks before had been a thriv- 
ing city, its harbor filled with peaceful 
traders, its magazines full of grain 
and merchandise, its 18,000 inhabitants 
thronging its streets or domesticated in 
their often splendid homes or kneeling at 
the altars of their magnificent churches, 
all in mankind's general pursuit of gain, 
pleasure and happiness. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 75 

Now the blackened stumps of mastheads 
showed where were the sunken hulls of 
the vessels. The grain was still smoking 
amidst the ruins of its storehouses, and this 
happy people had been driven like thieves 
from their own houses, all ransacked from 
garret to cellar, after a surrender in which 
protection of life and property had been 
most solemnly promised. 

As we passed along the deserted streets, 
the empty buildings sent back the echo of 
our horses' hoofs, and desolation seemed to 
be in its tone. Even the churches were 
desecrated, and " There," pointing to a pic- 
tureless frame, a Russian priest, whose 
scared figure flitted about the ruin of his 
sanctuary, found only words to say, — 
" there was our Saviour, till an English 
sailor cut the canvas out." Seminaries of 
learning had been destroyed, and their li- 
braries given to the flames. Their splendid 



76 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

museum, one of the richest in the world 
with treasures of antiquity, built upon 
the foundations of the palace of Mithri- 
dates, where cherished memorials of his 
time and even of antecedent ages had 
been piously collected, was ruthlessly 
sacked, not for the purpose of enriching 
temples of art elsewhere, as was done by 
Napoleon when he pillaged Italy, but for 
vandal pastime and insensate love of de- 
struction, under the instigation of the 
same drunken frenzy that perpetrated 
murder and rape scarcely surpassed by 
the hell-hounds of Delhi and Cawnpore. 
What a comment upon the idea advanced 
by the Western powers that Russia re- 
quired lessons in civilization from them ! 

The Turks who formed the garrison at 
Yenikalewere very comfortably situated. 
They had driven in from the country a 
considerable number of cattle and sheep, 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 77 

SO that they had plenty of beef and mut- 
ton, and to spare. As provisions of 
this kind were scarce at Kamiesh, we 
availed ourselves of the opportunity to 
obtain a supply. The purser and I ac- 
cordingly repaired to the camp, and sought 
an interview with the Pasha in command, 
who received us with great courtesy, but 
he could speak neither Bnglish nor PVench 
and we had only about a half-dozen words 
of Turkish at command. 

First, we made mutual salaams, and then 
sat down together on the grass ; next I 
offered him and his officers some cigars. 
We smoked for a while in silence. Indeed, 
the whole occasion was one of silence. At 
last I drew a paper from my pocket and 
made a sketch of the steamer, which was 
tolerably exact and easily recognized ; then 
I made one of a steer and another one of a 
sheep. They were distinguishable, for one 



78 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

had horns and the other had not. I showed 
it to the Pasha, and pointing to the repre- 
sentation of the steer, raised two fingers. 
He nodded an understanding assent. I 
then pointed to the supposed sheep and 
spread out the fingers of both hands twice. 
He realized that this meant twenty. 
Next I said in an inquiring tone, " Evet ? " 
That means, '' yes," and it is one of the 
six words that I knew. The Pasha nod- 
ded his approval and repeated '' Evet " in 
an approving tone. 

Thus much having been accomplished, 
I took a handful of sovereigns from my 
pocket and held them out to the Pasha in 
the palm of my hand. After some deliber- 
ation he gathered in eight of them,and then 
pressing my fingers on the ten or twelve 
that remained, indicated that I should put 
them back in my pocket. I did so, and 
pointed down to the harbor, whereupon he 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. yg 

detailed some soldiers to round up the ani- 
raals, and when they had got the requisite 
number together he ordered them to drive 
them down to the beach, from whence they 
were speedily put on board the ship. Only 
two words had passed between us, and 
they were all-sufficient. So that was the 
way in which I traded with a Turk. Had 
he been a Jew or a Yankee, many more 
words and sovereigns would have passed 
between us. 

We took on board a number of invalids 
whom we were to transport to Gallipoli 
in the Dardanelles, and thence with a load 
of cattle, we again sailed for the Crimea. 
After clearing the Bosphorus wc became 
enveloped in a thick fog for the whole 
passage across the Black Sea. It was not 
surprising, therefore, that we slightly over- 
ran the distance, and did not make a very 
good landfall. In consequence of this, 



8o AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

serious disaster was narrowly avoided. 
Suddenly in the early morning tlie veil 
lifted and we found ourselves running di- 
rectly into tlie harbor of Sebastopol and 
almost under the guns of Fort Constan- 
tine. Of course we were seen as plainly as 
we could see, and as we turned about in all 
haste to escape into the o£&ng, shot after 
shot came booming after us, splashing 
the water all around, but fortunately there 
had not been time to get an accurate 
range before the fog shut down again. 
Never was a fog more gratefully welcomed. 
The Russians naturally supposed that 
we were making the best possible time 
towards Kamiesh, and so they banged 
away in that direction with the hope that 
a chance shot might take effect ; but all 
this while we were steering due west as 
fast as our screw could revolve, and it was 
not until we were fairly out of gun-shot 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 8i 

that we turned to tlie soutli, and then, 
after a sufficient detour, headed for the 
port of our destination. 

The roar of artillery and the crack of 
rifles day and night had long since be- 
come so familiar that we came to regard 
them as part of our daily life, and as we 
were at a safe distance they did not dis- 
turb our sleep ; but at daylight on the 
morning of the eighteenth of June we be- 
came conscious that there was something 
unusual in the air, as suddenly hell itself 
seemed to have broken loose. No one 
had dreamed of the preconcerted and sim- 
ultaneous attack of the allies on the de- 
fences of Sebastopol, for we had supposed, 
as the beseigers themselves to their sor- 
row discovered on that disastrous day, 
that the trenches had not been sufficiently 
advanced for the assault. 

Nevertheless, the attempt was now made, 
6 



82 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

and the battle was waged witli varying 
success from early dawn until tlie darkness 
of niglit closed down upon tlie horrible 
scene of slaughter. There was no cavalry 
charge like that of Balaklava with artil- 
lery on only one side, but it was artillery 
on both sides now. When it was all over, 
the unsuccessful invaders were fifteen 
thousand less in number than when it 
began. At one part of the day this Quix- 
otic charge was nearly successful, not a 
few of the French troops having succeeded 
in scaling the earth-works of the Malakoff . 
All was consternation ashore and afloat 
at Kamiesh and at Balaklava, and every 
transport received orders to go to sea at a 
moment's warning. All day long bombs 
were whistling and bursting in every di- 
rection. A blaze of fire illuminated the 
sky from the horizon to the zenith, and 
terrific explosions causing the ships in 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 83 

the harbor to tremble to their keels, while 

" Earth shook ; red meteors flashed across the sky, 
And conscious Nature shuddered at the cry." 

We climbed to the mast-heads, and some 
of us went up to a little knoll two or 
three miles from the harbor to get a 
better view of the fight. But little more 
was to be seen excepting when, through 
the smoke " far flashed the red artillery ; " 
and as stray shots occasionally ploughed up 
the ground around us, we did not remain 
long upon the hill. 

The allies were finally repulsed, and 
before morning dawned, the town of 
Kamiesh was filled with the wounded. 
Had it not been for them there would 
have probably been a rush of everybody 
and everything on shore for the ships 
that would perhaps have tried to get to 
sea, for it was the general impression 
that the Russians would follow up their 



84 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

advantage, and come ont in force to drive 
away tlieir demoralized enemies. 

As reports iiad come in from tlie battle- 
field during tlie day, not only tlie officials 
but the camp followers and merchants 
were most seriously alarmed. Tbe latter 
picked up tbeir belongings, and piteously 
begged for leave to bring tbem on board 
tbe ships, and it was not until tbe next 
day indicated tbat we should not be 
molested, that confidence returned and 
people resumed tlieir usual vocations. 

Fortunately for them, the besieged had 
suffered nearly as much as the besiegers 
and they were content with repulsing 
their assailants instead of following up the 
advantage they had gained. If they had 
been able to improve it we should have 
been at their mercy. There were thirteen 
hundred sailing vessels in the harbor of 
Kamiesh alone, and there would have 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 85 

been sucli a jam tliat we could not liave 
gotten out. They miglit liave set on fire 
and destroyed tlie whole fleet. 

Such a contingency had often occurred 
to us, and there was a constant fear that 
among the Greeks who formed a part of 
the crews, there might have been some 
Russian spies who could on any night 
simultaneously have set a number of 
ships on fire to windward, and caused 
the unavoidable destruction of them all. 
With this in mind, I always selected a 
berth as near as possible to the mouth of 
the harbor and kept the fires constantly 
banked. It was strange indeed that this 
means of doing more injury to their ene- 
mies than could have been caused by 
sorties or battles was not improved by the 
Russians. 

There was no time lost in the morning. 
Every steamer and sailing ship that could 



86 AN- AMERICA N TRANSPOR T IN 

be utilized was ordered to make prepara- 
tions to receive and carry away all the 
wounded tliat were not actually dying, to 
tlie hospitals below, and some of those 
who could bear the transportation to 
Marseilles. Hasty preparations were 
accordingly made by covering the lower 
decks with straw for human bedding as 
we bedded down the horses and cattle. 
Then the steamers took the sailing vessels 
in tow, and v/e all proceeded down the 
Black Sea, our destination being Mar- 
seilles. 

From thence we were sent to Algeria 
to take a regiment of Zouaves to the 
Crimea. Owing to the necessity for some 
correspondence with France — which for 
want of telegraphic communication re- 
quired a week for a reply — we had that 
time at disposal for a journey of a hun- 
dred miles in the interior to visit Con- 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 87 

stantine, tlie ancient capital of Jugurtha. 
It liad been for many years a stronghold 
of the Arabs, and was wrested from them 
by the French after a prolonged siege, in 
which the garrison was starved out, the 
assault of the perpendicular cliffs on 
which the citadel was built being out of 
the question. The account of their heroic 
resistance, until famine compelled sur- 
render, is historical, like that of the siege 
of Saragossa, and like that it will live for 
all time to come, and stir the hearts of 
patriots everywhere who are willing to 
sacrifice their lives in the sacred cause of 
their country. ' 



88 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 



CHAPTER V. 

ThKRE^ was no railroad tlien to Con- 
stantine, and we travelled slowly by dili- 
gence, our road lighted at intervals by 
bonfires as a protection against tlie wild 
beasts tbat infested this region. Return- 
ing to our port of Philip ville, we took the 
Zouaves on board and were ready for sea. 
As an instance of the unvarying attention 
and politeness of the French officers 
everywhere with whom we came in con- 
tact, I must record my obligations to the 
general in command, who invited us to 
dine, and then, taking me out to his 
stable, presented me with a beautiful 
Arab stallion. The docile creature be- 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 89 

came so accustomed to getting to and 
from the ship in a small boat, that I had 
the pleasure of horseback exercise in 
every port. When the steamer was sold 
at the close of the war, he was shipped in 
a return sailing transport to New York, 
and carried me many a mile in our own 
country until he was superannuated. 

The allies sustained their heaviest 
losses in the summer months of 1855. 
They came more from disease than from 
battle. We perused with astonishment 
the accounts of what was transpiring 
around us, as they reached us in the 
French and English newspapers. " The 
sanitary condition of the army is excel- 
lent," was the stereotyped despatch to the 
London Times from Lord Raglan until 
he, himself, died with the cholera, and the 
same message was regularly sent in re- 
gard to the navy by Admiral Boxer, till 



go AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

he, too, was taken off by the same dread 
disease. 

There was more of truth in the ad- 
miral's report than that of the general, 
for there was comparatively little sick- 
ness afloat, as the sailors were subjected 
to no exposure or hardship, and were 
better fed and cared for than the soldiers. 
But the messages of Lord Raglan and 
General Pelissier had their effect in de- 
ceiving their countrymen at home and 
encouraging perseverance in the war, 
while everybody on the ground knew 
they were stupendous falsehoods. 

We transported some of the eighteen 
hundred survivors who were originally in 
the camp at Maslak, after it had been re- 
peatedly announced that but a few caseS of 
cholera had occurred there. In Eupatoria 
the garrison of thirteen thousand had been 
reduced to six thousand without a battle. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 91 

Among our passengers were frequently 
surgeons of the army and officers of higli 
rank. They agreed in fixing as the 
lowest estimate the loss of the allies for 
that summer at thirty thousand men. 
Sickness was prevalent, too, among the 
civilians and aboard the ships. Our sur- 
geon, to whom we owed a debt of gratitude 
for his sanitary precautions which kept 
us all in good health, was constantly oc- 
cupied while we were in port. One day 
I said to him as he returned to the ship 
with a pocketful of napoleons and five- 
franc pieces, '' Doctor, you get rid of 
more medicine here in two hours than you 
have dispensed on board the ship since 
you joined us." He replied, " Ah, well, 
you" pay me by the month." 

The secret of our immunity was that 
we never drank any water that had not 
been filtered elsewhere or distilled on 



92 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

board. In the naval fleet the water was 
never brought on board from the shore, 
but was always distilled. On land this 
precaution was perforce not taken. Still, 
something might have been done to pre- 
vent the soldiers from drinking the water 
of stagnant pools and streams polluted 
with the carcasses of dead animals that 
had been dumped into them to save the 
trouble of burial. It really seemed as if 
the allies were not content with being 
killed in their engagements with the Rus- 
sians, but were determined to add to 
battle, and murder, the sudden death 
they brought upon themselves. 

The men wounded in the various battles 
and skirmishes, as well as fever and cholera 
patients, Vv^ere cared for as far as possible 
in temporary hospitals under canvas, for 
there were no buildings left standing when 
it was known by the Russians that the 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 93 

allies would occupy the territory around 
Sebastopol. The Moscow policy was 
adopted again. 

So soon as the patients became con- 
valescent or partly so, they were shipped 
to Scutari, where there was plenty of 
room for them and a better chance for 
their recovery. A large fleet of steamers 
was constantly employed in this trans- 
portation. On the return we were ac- 
customed to bring recruits, horses, stores 
and ammunition. The lower deck, with 
the exception of the cabin reserved for 
officers, was fitted up as a permanent 
stable. When carrying cattle or troops, 
the bars between the stalls were removed, 
making room for four hundred cattle, two 
thousand sheep, seven hundred soldiers, 
or two hundred and fifty sick and v/ounded. 
The crowded condition of the little steamer, 
measuring only six hundred and thirteen 



94 ^^ AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

tons, including the machinery, may be 
imagined. The cattle, however, were of a 
very small breed, and, being furnished 
by contractors with regard to number 
and not to weight, they were so thin 
that they could be easily stowed away, 
and so light that they were always hoisted 
in and out by the horns. 

In our civil war, although there was an 
enormous amount of bribery, corruption, 
and stealing that was unknown in the 
French commissariat and intendance, there 
v/as seldom such overcrowding as this. 
An inferior class of transports was, how- 
ever, employed, rotten old hulks. North 
River barges fitted with teakettle power, 
being accepted by our government officials 
— for a consideration. We were then, as we 
still are, prohibited from the purchase of 
substantial iron steamers from abroad, and 
such rattle-traps as these were necessarily 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 95 

employed for the emolument of their 
owners, who considered protection of home 
industry of this kind to be good policy. 
The coast from Maine to Florida was lined 
with these coffins of our soldiers, whose 
only satisfaction was, before they were 
drowned, that they were not packed as 
were these Frenchmen, like sardines in 
a box. 

Upon arrival at Kamiesh, with any of 
these supplies from Marseilles or Con- 
stantinople, frequently scarcely an hour 
was allowed to cleanse the Augean stables. 
As the last package, man, beast or am- 
munition, went over the side, the hose was 
led to play on the decks, and whitewash 
was laid on the ceiling. The decks were 
then swabbed and clean straw was strewed 
upon them, whereon were placed the sick 
and wounded. 

The unpleasant nature of this occupa- 



96 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

tion may be readily conceived, and I will 
not sliock sensibility by minute descrip- 
tion of tbe objects of misery tbat came 
under our cbarge. Turned out from the 
camp hospitals where man}^ of them might 
have survived, sometimes in a critical 
stage of fever or cholera, they were 
brought at early morning in ambulances 
or on mules, one slung on each side of 
the animal, and arrived at about eight or 
nine o'clock at the beach. There I have 
seen hundreds of them lying in the hot 
sun for hours, the steamers, or the scows 
in which they were to be floated oif not 
being ready to receive them. There 
they groaned, and cursed, and prayed — 
prayed for death. Many died upon the 
beach and upon the short passage to the 
ship, and some died as they were being 
carried up the ladders. As we steamed 
away at our fullest speed, many a poor 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. . 97 

fellow found liis grave in tlie Black Sea. 
The Buxine is its rightful name in geog- 
raphy and history, but now it came to de- 
serve the name by which it is more often 
called. 

Familiarity with misery and death 
tends to make the hearts of men cal- 
lous, and dries up the fountains of sympa- 
thetic tears. One day as I was taking 
my rounds in the between-decks, I came 
to a poor man in the last agonies of 
cholera. He was powerless to help him- 
self, and his glassy eyes showed that he 
was beyond the reach of hope. Seated 
near him was another not severely 
wounded soldier, employed in mending 
his clothes. I said to him, " Why don't 
you try to do something for that poor fel- 
low, and at least brush the flies from his 
face ? " " That's not my affair," he re- 
plied ; ''I did not come from the same 



98 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

hospital, and besides lie belongs to an in- 
fantry regiment." " What is all that row 
about ? " I asked a chief officer on another 
occasion. '' It comes from some of the 
soldiers," he answered, " because we had 
to disturb their game of cards when haul- 
ing up a couple of dead men from the fore 
hatch." 

But let us turn to the only humaniz- 
ing feature of this sad experience — the 
never-failing sympathy and tenderness of 
those blessed Sisters of Charity. As soon 
as we anchored off Scutari, by day or by 
night, in summer or in winter, in sun- 
shine or in storm, they were alongside 
the ship. At sight of them, the ferocious 
soldiers for the time changed their nat- 
ures. When they descended among the 
sick, whose lips were almost sealed in 
death, grateful eyes spoke in clearer tones 
than words could express. They brought 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 99 

witli them little delicacies to tempt the 
appetite, and ointments and dressings for 
the mangled limbs of the wonnded. 
There they sat down npon the filthy straw 
among them, and when earthly snccor 
was of no more avail, they soothed their 
dying moments by telling them of 

" A sovereign balm for all their woes, 
A cordial for their fears." 

Florence Nightingale has nobly won 
a renown that will endnre for ages, and 
this part of her reward she has npon 
earth. St. Arnand, Raglan, Canrobert, 
Pelissier, Omar Pasha, Gortchakoff, and 
other heroes of the war have written their 
names in blood upon the scroll of 
history. The name of no one of these 
Sisters of Charity has been sounded by 
the trumpet of fame. Barth has never 
rewarded them, for they sought not wealth 



I OO AN A MERTCAN TRANS FOR T IN 

or applause, but their names have been 
written on tbe records of heaven, in tears 
of gratitude and holy love. 

The main defences of Sebastopol, after 
a persistent siege of nearly a year, were 
at length captured on the 8th of Sep- 
tember, 1855. The town, a wreck of 
brick and mortar, that had been riddled 
for so many months by a storm of iron, 
was evacuated by its remaining inhabi- 
tants. The old wooden fleet, comprising 
but few vessels fit for modern warfare, 
was scuttled and sunk in the harbor. 
In one night the Russian garrison, after 
thus disposing of the fleet, blew up the 
southern forts, crossed and burned the 
bridge, and retired unmolested to their 
northern Gibraltar, which commanded the 
ground that they had previously occupied, 
thus performing the most masterly evolu- 
tion of this eventful war. Everything of 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. loi 

value that was left to their enemies were 
tlie splendid docks whose position sheltered 
them from the Russian guns. Actuated 
by the same vandal spirit which led them 
to destroy the treasures of antiquity of 
Kertch, they proceeded systematically 
with the destruction of these works un- 
equalled by any others at that date. 

A few days afterwards we visited the 
captured city, having hired the same old 
drosky on which we made the excursion 
to Balaklava months before. It was 
nearly the only four-wheeled vehicle that 
could be obtained, and its owner derived 
a large income from its profitable employ- 
ment, at the rate of a dollar per mile. 
My wife could sit upon it with difiiculty, 
but it was necessary to pass lashings 
over the young lady of six, whose curi- 
osity, like that of her mother, was bomb- 
proof. First we proceeded over a tolera- 



102 . AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

bly good road througli the Frencli head- 
quarters, stopping for a moment to pay 
our respects to General Pelissier at his 
little ten-foot shanty, and then went on 
to the English camp, where we were po- 
litely received and furnished with a pass 
to enter Sebastopol. It was necessary to 
be provided with this, as a general admis- 
sion was forbidden, it having been found 
that large crowds frequently drew a heavy 
fire from the north side, whereas, under 
this regulation, the risk was diminished. 
The road, which, after leaving the 
F'rench camp, had gradually been growing 
worse and worse, now became villainous 
as we bounded over it on this cart-frame 
without springs or cushions. For the 
last two miles the ground was literally 
covered with balls and fragments of 
shells that had been fired from the Mala- 
koff and Redan. We passed several regi- 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 103 

mental cemeteries of the Bnglisli. That 
of the 1 1 7th was neatly fenced and kept 
in order like a garden, presenting a pleas- 
ing contrast to the general inhuman dis- 
position of the dead. 

Being now on the Woronzoff road, we 
passed the Mamelon Vert. This fort 
had been in the possession of the allies 
for a long time, and under its cover the 
final successful rush was made, when the 
English were exposed to such a storm of 
shot as had seldom before been faced by 
an army, and which nothing but emula- 
tion could have enabled them to en- 
counter. Standing there now it was dif- 
ficult to imagine the possibility of its 
accomplishment, even if the thousands of 
dead who had been thrown into the 
ravine had already been there to lessen 
its depth. We first entered the Redan, 
and there, as afterwards at the Malakoff, 



1 04 AN AMERICAN TRA NSPOR T IN 

all preconceived notions were dissipated. 
Instead of granite walls of masonry, 
tliere were barricades of sand-bags, more 
formidable and more easily repaired tban 
fortifications of stone. From thence we 
looked down upon the city, wbicb before 
liad been seen bnt indistinctly. Now the 
whole town was exposed to view, and a 
melancholy view it was indeed. Scarcely 
a house had been untouched, and whole 
blocks and squares had been completely 
demolished. The mast-heads of the 
ships in the harbor were above v/ater, and 
the pride of the Russian navy, " The 
Twelve Apostles," could be seen almost 
down to her deck. Forts Constantine 
and Catherine, were blazing away occa- 
sionally, principally upon that part of 
the town where the French were throw- 
ing up breastv/orks against it. We de- 
scended to the city merely that we might 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 105 

say that we liad been in Sebastopol, and 
walked about what Gortciiakoff so aptly 
termed its " bloody ruins." But we soon 
saw enough of its desolation, and were 
willing to leave this charnel-house, whose 
horrid odors had more effect in driving 
us away than the booming of the guns. 

The estimate of plunder found in the 
city has been much exaggerated, the in- 
habitants having long before removed 
their money and' valuables to places of 
safety in the country. The prey that 
remained was distributed in a ratio of 
two-thirds to the French and one-third to 
the English, each of whom made the 
Sardinians a small allowance. The 
Turks got nothing, it being supposed 
that they owed the whole of their share 
in gratitude ! 

Ascending a quarter of a mile, we stood 
upon the Malakoff, the key of Sebas- 



lo6 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

topol. From its summit was the most 
comprehensive view, and the whole field 
of operations could be taken in at a 
glance. The tower of the Malakoff, of 
which so much has been said, v/as noth- 
ing but a small stone battlement, whose 
foundation only remained. The earth- 
works were like those of the Redan, ex- 
cepting that they consisted of baskets of 
dirt and of rigging of dismantled ships, 
instead of bags of sand. The position 
far exceeded that of the Redan in size, 
strength and ability for desperate resist- 
ance. In both forts, as well as everywhere 
else in the vicinity, the ground had been 
ploughed up by shells, which must have 
cost the lives of thousands of the brave 
defenders. 

From this height the labor of months and 
the result of the final conflict could be seen 
at a glance. Beneath lay the ruined city ; 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 107 

beyond, tlie Harbor dotted witb. tbe mast- 
heads of sunken ships ; further still, the 
bristling Russian batteries terraced above 
each other, and vomiting fire and shot upon 
the enemy, tantalized by the sight of an 
unavailable prize. Turning around and 
looking beneath we could see the long zig- 
zag lines of attack, those of the French 
reaching to the base of the Malakoff. 
Thence the nimble Zouaves, who decided 
the fate of the day, sprang at the signal 
and scaled the parapets with a bound. 

At the right and facing the Redan were 
the Bnglish works uncompleted in their 
length. By Pelissier's order, the Bn- 
glish were obliged to storm the Redan 
under a disadvantage not shared by the 
French ; for they were forced to run 
down a hill into the ravine, and thence to 
attempt an ascent which proved to be im- 
possible. Nearly all were mowed down 



Io8 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

by tlie Russian guns and fell into this 
valley of the shadow of death, which 
became a vale of mortality made almost 
level with the bodies of the slain. The 
English were compelled to retreat. But 
the Redan was evacuated in the night, 
and they entered it unmolested in the 
morning. 

The conflict was yet too recent for the 
dust of men and the dust of earth to be 
mingled together. Mangled and unburied 
corpses were still seen around, and the 
air was impregnated with this vast human 
sacrifice. 

The brave soldiers who perished in the 
attack belong now to a legion of honor. 
The altar of patriotism is the monument 
of the defenders, and a halo of glory sur- 
rounds their memory — a memory forever 
enshrined in the heart of Russia, of the 
gallant band who withstood that year's 



THE CRIMEAN- WAR. 109 

long, fiery rain, not for honor, but for 
country and for home. 

By a tacit understanding, the dinner 
hour had been respected during the siege, 
and both parties were allowed to dine 
quietly, and after a suitable allowance of 
time for pipes and cigars, fighting was re- 
sumed. It was therefore justly considered 
an affront by the Russians when this con- 
ventional truce was broken by the other 
side, and the French commenced the 
scaling of the Malakoff, just as they 
were sitting down at their noonday meal. 

But now the practice had been resumed, 
and everything was quiet, till about two 
o'clock in the afternoon, when the Russians 
could be seen bestirring themselves across 
the bay. Forts Constantine and Cath- 
erine were becoming more energetic, and 
a little battery across the harbor began to 
exercise its mortars in our direction. We 



1 1 o AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

accordingly executed a speedy retreat 
across the ravine below tlie Redan where 
our cart was in waiting. Just as we were 
driving away, a shell burst in the centre 
of the Malakoff and another over the path 
on which we descended. 

Here is an extract from a letter written 
on the next day to a Boston newspaper : 

" To own the truth, however incumbent 
it was upon me, as your correspondent, 
to enter Sebastopol, I felt that I had in- 
curred a risk for others who were of vastly 
more importance to me than are the read- 
ers of the Journal. But ' all's well that 
ends well,' and I do not regret it now. 
Female curiosity has been satisfied. 
What American woman would depart 
from the neighborhood of such a scene 
without investigating it, regardless of a 
little danger, and years hence (God bless 
her ! may it be many of them !) my little 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. m 

daughter may tell her children of the 
ever memorable siege of Sebastopol, and 
of that lovely autumn day when she stood 
upon the Malakoff and clapped her hands 
with delight as the balls came whizzing 
over her head." 



AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 



CHAPTER VI. 

Our contract with, the French gov- 
ernment had now nearly expired, and 
although it might have been renewed, it 
was not advisable. As has been already 
intimated, the French, while strictly hon- 
orable in all their dealings, were hard 
task-masters, and were always on the 
alert to get the full worth of their money. 
There was a clause in their charter party 
to the effect that any delay on our part 
caused by accident to the ship or machin- 
ery should incur a reduction of pay corre- 
sponding with the time lost thereby. If 
we shut down steam for an hour or two, 
even if we made the same speed under 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 113 

canvas, while prosecuting repairs, it was 
sure to be reported by some one of the 
passengers. But it was " nominated in 
tlie bond," and we liad no rigbt to com- 
plain of it. 

Nevertbeless, the conditions were so 
onerous that, as the Turkish govern- 
ment offered the same rates, I con- 
cluded to become a Mussulman for the 
time being. In their service we had, on 
the whole, an exceedingly easy time. 
The French idea of putting off nothing 
for the morrow that could be done to-day 
was exactly reversed. Anything that 
should be done to-day was postponed till 
to-morrow excepting in case of dire neces- 
sity. 

Having made the agreement with the 

Minister of War, I drew up a charter 

party similar to the one we had with the 

French, taking care, however, to omit the 
8 



114 ^^ AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

provision that in all disputes the govern- 
ment was to be the sole arbiter, and pre- 
sented it to the Minister for his signature. 
He cast a half -awake look at it and asked, 
"What is that?" "The charter party, 
your Excellency," I replied. " A charter 
party ? What is a charter party ? " 
" ¥/liy, your Excellency, it is our agree- 
ment." " Our agreement ! " he repeated 
after me. " Well, have we not agreed to 
pay you what you had from the French, 
— ^2,000 per month and your coal?" 
"Precisely so," I answered. "And this 
is it." He took the paper, scanned it 
over, and then returned it to me saying, 
that there appeared to be a great many 
words used to express a very simple 
matter, and that there was no use for any 
writing, for all that I had to do was to 
come at the end of the month and get 
my money. Thereupon I told him that 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 115 

for my own part I needed no paper, as I 
was fully satisfied witli his word, but that 
the other owners of the ship at home 
would object to my doing business in that 
way. " Ah, well," he replied, " if you 
must have a paper, make it short as 
possible. Sit down and write this : 
* The Ottoman Government charters the 
William Penn at ^2,000 a month, fur- 
nishing the coal and paying for passen- 
gers' food the same as heretofore." 

I wrote that down accordingly, and hav- 
ing signed it, with a yawn he returned to 
his pipe and his coffee. The money was as 
punctually paid as if this simple charter 
party had covered a ream of paper, and 
although we went when we were told to 
go and stayed when we were not told to 
go, I honestly think that there was a great 
deal of pay for a very little work. Our 
trips were generally from Constantinople 



1 1 6 AN A MERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

to Varna or Bupatoria, that is, wHen we 
did anything but lay at the dock. 

On arrival it was my duty to report to 
Mustapha at the Arsenal. Always when 
admitted to his presence I found him cross- 
legged on the divan in exactly the same 
spot and position he occupied v/hen I had 
last taken leave. He must have moved in 
order to go to bed at night, but it did not 
seem as if he needed to have done so, for 
he appeared to be asleep most of the time. 

I made my habitual salaam, which he 
acknowledged v/ith a slight nod, and then 
made a motion with his hand that I was 
to sit down, which I did, not after his 
fashion, but after my own. A sort of 
grunt brought a servant, and some kind 
of a signal, without the needless use of 
words, told him that he was to bring 
coffee and chibooks, both of which, partic- 
ularly the coffee, I detested. Coffee pre- 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 117 

pared in Ttirkisli style is an abomination 
of fine grounds stirred np v/itli hot water 
strained th rough the teeth before it can 
be swallowed, and there is an unpleasant 
bitterness in the taste of their tobacco. 
Nevertheless, it would have been a breach 
of etiquette to decline the offered refresh- 
ments. 

Silently we sat and sipped and smoked 
for perhaps ten minutes until the Pasha 
broke the dream-like stillness by ask- 
ing, " When did you arrive ? " '' This 
morning at eight o'clock, your Excel- 
lency." " I will send your coal to-morrow." 
That was all that there was to be said, 
and it was the end of the interview. The 
coal did not come on the morrow, but it 
came in little driblets towards the end of 
the week. Meantime the pay was going 
on, and I rather liked this change from the 
energetic practice of the French. 



1 18 AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

Once we were sent up to Bupatoria in 
the dead of winter with a cargo of stores. 
When we arrived, it was blowing a gale on 
a lee shore, and several vessels were an- 
chored in the outer roads, rolling and pitch- 
ing in the big seas that were tumbling 
on to the beach. We anchored ahead 
of a sailing ship, giving her, as I sup- 
posed, a suf&cient berth. But instead of 
riding with two anchors with ninety fath- 
oms of chain to each, she was riding with 
one hundred and eighty fathoms out at a 
single anchor in eight fathoms of water. 

Suddenly in the night there was a fear- 
ful crash under our stern. In rising and 
falling on the seas, the propeller had 
struck the chain of the ship astern of us 
and was shivered at the hub, leaving the 
shaft bare ! This was indeed a most un- 
fortunate accident, for although no such 
contingency was provided for in the con- 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 119 

cise agreement drawn up by tlie Minister 
of War, I felt that I was in honor bound 
to claim no pay while off duty till another 
propeller could be substituted. 

"This is a bad business, Mr. Sears," I said 
to my chief officer. Mr. Sears was a genu- 
ine Cape Cod Yankee, and I was greatly 
attracted to him for his sterling good quali- 
ties, and his characteristic humor was 
always enlivening. His experience had 
heretofore been entirely in sailing vessels, 
and he had a very poor opinion of " bilers 
and fireplaces " in the hold, and was al- 
ways expecting a fire. But nothing ever 
disturbed the equilibrium of his philoso- 
phy. 

Once, when in the French service, 
as we were crossing the Black Sea in a 
heavy gale, a fire broke out in some cot- 
ton waste in the engine-room. As I 
jumped belov^^ to see that the hose was 



1 2 o AN A MERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

led on, I sliouted to Sears to keep tlie 
sliip off before the wind, to lessen tlie 
draught. 

A French General who happened to be 
on board, who would not have winked be- 
fore the guns of Sebastopol, was, like many 
of the soldiers, paralyzed with fear. He 
rushed up to Sears, who was standing by 
the man at the wheel, exclaiming, " Oh, 
Monsieur Se — ars, ze ship vill burn, vill 
burn, vill burn ! " 

^' Like enough," he replied, interject- 
ing an order (" steady as you go "). 
" I've been cal'ating on that for some 
time. What can you expect when there 
is so much fire around ? Mebbe we'll 
put it out, and mebbe we won't. You'd 
better get them sojers of yourn for'ard. 
I want to have the davit tackle falls ready 
for runnin'. Take it easy, Gineral, you 
can't do nothing but keep out of the way. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 121 

Whatever is fated will come to pass ; 
that's sartain." 

When we were shut up with all the 
other vessels in the port of Marseilles at 
the time of the fearful cholera visitation 
in the summer of 1854, and the fleet was 
abandoned to the care of ship-keepers, I 
offered to take him with us into the 
country, but he bluntly refused to go. 

" I can look out for the ship better than 
any ship-keeper," he said. *' If it is fated 
for me to catch the cholera, in course I 
shall catch it, and if it ain't, I shan't. 
No, sir, I am going to stay aboard, and 
get my grub ashore, if there is anything 
fit to eat. That's the worst of it, for these 
darned French dishes may give me the 
cholera after all ; but that depends on 
how it is fated." 

Sears was very reticent about matters 
pertaining to his home circle, and we had 



122 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

been away six months before any letter 
came to him. At last one day in the 
Consul's office I found one addressed to 
'' Snow Y. Sears, First-mate of Steamer 
William Penn," having upon it the post- 
mark of Hyannis. On handing it to him 
lie put it into his pocket. 

" Why, Mr. Sears," I said, " aren't you 
going to read your letter you have been 
waiting for so long ? " ''I haven't been 
waiting for it," he replied, " it's come of 
itself. I was going to keep it till after 
dinner, but I suppose I might as well 
read it now." 

With that, he slowly opened it, glanced 
at the signature to see from whom it came, 
and then read it with unmoved features till 
he came to the close, when a smile stole 
over his countenance. 

" Well, what's the news from home ? " 
I asked. " Nothin' very particular," he 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 123 

answered. " Well, there is, tHougli. A 
man in Hyannis lias run off with a 
woman." " That's a rather common 
thing," I said. '' Yes, but he was a mar- 
ried man." " That makes it worse." 
" But the woman was married too," he 
continued. " That's about as bad as it 
could be," I remarked. '' No, it ain't," he 

replied. " The d d rascal owed me 

two hundred dollars ; but we're even 
now ! " 

'' Why ? " I inquired. " How does his 
running away pay his debt to you ? " 

'' Well, sir," answered Sears, " when 
a man is bothered with one woman, it's 
generally bad enough, but when he's lum- 
bered up with two, he is to be pitied more 
than two hundred dollars' worth, and I 
shan't f oiler him up any more." 

The conclusion we arrived at after 
this was either that Mr. Sears was a 



124 ^^ AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

bactielor, or that he would prefer to be 
one. He maintained his confidence in 
fatalism to the end. After his return to 
New York, when the yellow fever was 
raging in Havana, he was offered a com- 
mand of a bark in that trade, a position 
that no one seemed to covet. But he 
accepted it at once. When some of his 
friends endeavored to dissuade him, he 
simply said, " If it is fated for me to catch 
the yellow fever, I shall catch it, and if it 
is fated the other way, I shan't." Un- 
fortunately, this time fate was against 
him ; he had the fever and died. 

Dear, good, faithful, honest old soul, 
though not much of a Presbyterian, you 
believed in one article of their catechism, 
and you were predestined to receive your 
reward ! 

While I was in despair at the loss of the 
propeller Mr. Sears took this consolation 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 125 

to Himself, " Well, we've got to be a sail- 
ing vessel now, anyway, and I begin' to 
feel to home." THen after a little reflec- 
tion, lie added suddenly, " Captain, that 
propeller ain't gone — leastways it ain't 
gone yet." 

" What do you mean ? " I said. " It's 
very much gone, and gone altogether." 
" No, it ain't — yet," he replied, '' and it 
won't be gone till them Turks find out it is 
gone, and then it'll be time enough for us to 
lose it. We've got to discharge this cargo, 
and the way things go among these fellers 
that'll take a week, and till then the pro- 
peller is just as safe as if it was on the 
shaft ; and when we've got the cargo out, 
who knows what may turn up ? What- 
ever will be, will be, and there's no use 
bothering about the futur' now. The 
best thing we can do is to turn in and get 
some sleep. It won't come off again to- 



126 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

night, anyway, and if fhe wind holds this 
way till morning we can get into the har- 
bor easily enough without any propeller." 

The wind did hold, and the gale abated, 
so that at daylight we hove up our 
anchors, made a little fire for the sake of 
appearances, hoisted the jib and sailed 
into port, anchoring among the rest of the 
fleet. As we brought up, Sears rubbed 
his hands and quietly remarked, " The 
propeller ain't gone yet." 

The sentinels were pacing their rounds, 
but the camp was not yet awake. For- 
tunately for the invaders, the Russians 
had not had time to destroy the town in 
accordance with their usual practice, so 
that the quarters of the troops were more 
comfortable than they would have been in 
tented fields at this inclement season of 
the year, when, as on the day of our ar- 
rival, the mercury stood at zero, and the 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 127 

Streets were blocked with snow. With 
what we had brought them, the garrison 
had a good supply of food, but scarcely 
enough fuel to cook it, and none whatever 
wherewith to keep themselves warm. 

I made inquiries for the Pasha in com- 
mand, and was directed to a house occu- 
pied by him. Through the interpreter I 
asked the guard in what room he was to 
be found, and he pointed out the door to 
me. On entering, I saw, literally, a pile 
of bodies, a dozen or more heaped up to- 
gether and all asleep. They were awak- 
ened by the noise we made, and as they 
uncoiled themselves, the Pasha was dis- 
covered at the bottom of the heap, where 
he had kept himself warm by having men 
instead of blankets piled over him. 

When he learned that a steamer had 
come to him with provisions, he soon got 
over his resentment at having been so 



1 28 AN AMERICAN TRA NSPOR T IN 

rudely av/akened, and wlien I expressed 
my synipathy and offered to send asliore 
a few tons of coal to warm tip his house, 
lie blessed me in the name of the Pro- 
phet and hugged me in his arms. From 
that moment he was our friend, and I 
verily believe that had the loss of the pro- 
peller come to his knov/ledge he would 
have carefully ignored it. 

But that propeller was not yet gone. 
It took nearly a week to discharge the 
cargo in small boats, and in stormy 
weather, and truth compels me to say 
that we fell naturally into the Turkish 
habit of doing nothing to-day that could 
be done to-morrow. 

At last what I supposed would be the 
inevitable day was drawing near when 
we should be ordered to return to Con- 
stantinople with invalids. But to my 
great relief the Pasha informed me that 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 129 

they had on hand a large amount of 
barley that had been captured from the 
Russians, and that he wished us to load 
with that instead of carrying passengers. 

When I communicated this pleasing in- 
telligence to Mr. Sears, I said that there 
might be a question as to its being fair to 
take that barley on board knowing that 
we could not carry it away under steam. 

" Well," he replied, " barley ain't a per- 
ishable article, like a sick sojer, and if it 
should take a little longer to get it down 
to Constantinople, no harm will be done. 
It will be a week at any rate before we 
can get it in, and that time will be saved 
anyway. Then, like enough, we'll have 
a slant of wind to get out of the harbor, 
and we can lose the propeller going down 
the Black Sea." 

This consideration of the subject seemed 
to be reasonable, and its adoption under 



130 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

the circumstances justifiable, as at the 
worst tlie minister of war would probably 
only deduct from our pay tbe difference 
of time occupied in sailing and steaming. 
So we commenced taking in tbe barley, 
and soon afterwards Providence came to 
our aid in a manner the possibility of 
wbicli bad never presented itself even to 
tbe sanguine imagination of Mr. Sears. 

It lacked but two or three days of 
the completion of our lading when the 
little English trading steamer " Tubal 
Cain " came into port. Captain Savage, 
her commander, had been peddling his 
cargo at Balaklava and Kamiesh, and 
as Bupatoria was not very much out of 
his way to the Bosphorus, he came in 
here to dispose, if possible, of the balance 
of it and also to get a supply of coal. 

Here then was an opportunity. I went 
on board and confided our condition to 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 131 

him, offering my services in aiding him 
to sell his goods to my friend, the Pasha, 
and moreover promising him an ample 
supply of coal on condition that he would 
take us in tow. He was only too glad to 
accept these terms. His stores were sold 
at once at a satisfactory profit, and he 
hauled alongside the next night to take 
in the coal. If Lord Dunraven had been 
there, his eagle eye would have detected 
a change of draught in the " Tubal Cain " 
on the following morning. 

The barley being all on board, our sail- 
ing orders were received. I bade the un- 
suspicious Pasha good-bye as he over- 
whelmed me with thanks for the coal, 
and for the two cases of champagne, 
which I had already discovered was not 
forbidden by the Prophet. 

When all the garrison had gone to sleep 
at their usual hour, we hove up our anch- 



132 AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

ors simultaneously, tlie '' Tubal Cain " 
taking us in tow. We had pleasant 
weather in tHe Black Sea, managed to 
enter tlie Bospkorus at nigkt, and morn- 
ing found us alongside of our dock. 

Tken Mr. Sears fairly jumped as He 
exclaimed, *' Tkat propeller ain't gone 
yet ! " adding, " Wkat's tke use of a pro- 
peller, anyway ? " It really did look as if 
we could get along pretty well without 
one; tkat is to say, in tke Turkisk em- 
ploy ; but if tkis sort of tking kad kap- 
pened in tke Frenck service, we migkt 
kave lost a montk's pay. 

Tkere was no difficulty in obtaining a 
spare screw from anotker steamer, wkick, 
witk very little reaming, was made to fit on 
our skaft. As all tke dock room was occu- 
pied by vessels of tke navy, v/e were put 
to some little trouble after our cargo was 
disckarged in moving all tke ballast into 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 133 

the fore-peak and constructing a coffer- 
dam around the stern of the ship. That 
having been pumped out, we hoisted our 
new propeller over it and put it upon the 
shaft. When this operation was com- 
pleted, there was a final occasion for Mr. 
Sears to say, " The propeller ain't gone 
yet — and it never has been gone ! " We 
had, by the exercise of no little prudence 
and ingenuity, fairly and honestly earned 
our charter money, for our employers had 
not been defrauded of a single piastre, 
although they did not know the difference 
between a steamer and a sailing vessel. 



1 34 Al^ A MERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 



CHAPTER VII. 

Hafiz Bffkndi was an officer on duty 
at the arsenal with whom we were often 
associated in the routine of business. He 
was a man of agreeable manners, and al- 
ways courteous in his deportment. He 
had been educated in Paris and had trav- 
elled extensively in England and in Ger- 
many. With the languages of those 
countries he was familiar, while he spoke 
French with the fluency of a native, and 
in his manners and habits was more a 
Frenchman than a Turk. He had never 
crossed the Atlantic, but it was his great 
desire and full intention at no distant day 
to visit the United States. Perhaps he at- 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 135 

tached himself to ns for the purpose of get- 
ting all the information we could give him 
for the furtherance of his project, while 
he was always ready in return to answer 
our many questions about his own coun- 
try, its government, its people and its 
resources. 

The acquaintance thus formed in the 
line of his duties ripened into a sincere 
friendship upon which we set a value 
that it deserved. One day Hafiz asked 
the purser and myself to dine with 
him. He was still sufficient of a Turk to 
adhere in a degree to the customs of his 
country, for ladies were not included in 
the invitation. Indeed if it had been given, 
it could not have been accepted, as my 
family were then at Prinkipo, a charming 
island in the Sea of Marmora, not far dis- 
tant from Constantinople, where they were 
out of the way of the rough associations 



136 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

they would have been obliged to encounter 
in the service in which we were now 
engaged. 

We accordingly repaired to the house of 
our entertainer inPera at the appointed hour 
of six o' clock, and were ushered into a re- 
ception-room which did not differ much in 
its furnishing from that we should have 
found at home. Our host soon presented 
himself in the conventional Buropean and 
American evening dress, which we pre- 
sumed had been donned for the occasion 
out pf deference to his guests. 

Dinner being announced soon after- 
wards, we were ushered into a dining-room 
of moderate dimensions, the walls on all 
sides covered with mirrors, giving tis the 
impression that, as the Bffendi was sup- 
posed generally to dine alone, he was fond 
of having himself for society all around, 
for he was really a very handsome man, 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 137 

worthy of being seen by himself as well 
as by others. 

The mefiu was excellent but not elab- 
orate, and did not differ much from 
what we might have found at a small 
dinner party at home, the only outlandish 
dishes on the table being the inevitable 
kobobs and a species of pillau. Of course 
there was some of the champagne not 
prohibited by the Prophet. We all had 
good appetites, and the dinner, as they 
say, '' went off " in a very satisfactory 
manner. 

After the last course, which did not 
include any sweets, Hafiz arose and 
said, " Now, gentlemen, we will adjourn 
to the drawing-room and take our coffee 
with the ladies." " You see," he added, 
with some slight hesitation, " our customs 
are not exactly like yours, and such as 
they are, I am innovating upon them some- 



138 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

what in tliis instance. But my family 
will be glad to meet yon, and I trust that 
you will find tliem agreeable." 

He tben ushered us into a large draw- 
ing-room, abounding also in mirrors, and 
elaborately furnished in semi-French and 
semi-Oriental style. The floor was car- 
peted with beautiful rugs ; heavy curtains 
dropped before the windows, and divans, 
chairs and little tables were distributed 
around. 

Reclining on the divans were four 
ladies, two of them in the bloom of youth, 
somewhere about sweet sixteen, one be- 
tween her second and third decade, and 
another perhaps between her third and 
fourth. They were all beautiful women in 
their various stages of maturity, and their 
beauty was of various types. 

Evidently variety was pleasing to the 
eye of our host, and although we had 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 139 

not tte same interest in it that lie 
had, it was pleasing to us. Of the two 
young houris, one might have sat for 
the portrait of Lolah and the other 
for that of Katinka. These two and 
the eldest (I mean the least youth- 
ful) were in Turkish costume exceed- 
ingly becoming, and the second in age, 
if it be permitted to apply that term 
to any of them, wore a dkcolleti Buropean 
dress. The ease with which we made 
oiirselves at home before this brilliant 
array was, I think, creditable to both of 
us, especially to my young friend, Mr. 

D , who was a modest as well as a 

handsome youth, and he must have been 
regarded by these ladies as particularly 
handsome just then, when his face was 
suffused with blushes. 

I have only given his initial, accord- 
ing to promise, for he is now a well 



140 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

known business man in New York, hav- 
ing achieved an honorable career. Hafiz 
might have been jealous, but if he was 
so, he gave no signs of any such dis- 
position. We were not introduced to all 
of these ladies by name. Our host simply 
said, '' Void ma famille!''' But he dis- 
tinguished the lady in European dress 
as " Ma femme Josephine. ^^ 'Nowfemme is 
a very convenient French word, and its 
ambiguity often serves a very desirable 
purpose. 

Coffee and sweetmeats were passed 
around by a coal-black Nubian, and I 
will do Hafiz the credit to say that the 
coffee was brewed in French, and not in 
Turkish style. " The ladies will per- 
mit us to smoke," he said, as again he 
evinced his considerate politeness by 
offering us cigars, while he resorted to 
the chibook himself. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 141 

Then '' Mafemme Josephine " gave us 
some excellent music, delicately touching 
tlie piano to accompany her songs which 
were a little after the style of Madame 
Yvette Guilbert. 

After that I sat down by her side, while 
Hafiz was talking with the lady least 

young, having placed Mr. D between 

the brunette and blonde beauties, with 
whom he entered into an animated con- 
versation, carried on chiefly by signs, for 
neither of the ladies spoke French or 
English, and " Bvet " and " Yoke " ( yes 
and no) was about all the Turkish the 
purser had at command. 

Madame Josephine had no use for 
the words of one of her celebrated country- 
women, " God has given me my eyes, 
and I can provide the rest for my- 
self." She certainly had a pair of soul- 
stirring eyes, abundant black hair, regu- 



142 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

lar features, and a faultless form. To 
add to all this, slie liad been provided 
witli a tongue tipped with sweetness and 
stirred with vivacity. 

She was well read in French litera- 
ture, especially conversant with the poetry 
of Racine, Corneille and Chenier, with the 
philosophy of Voltaire and the novels of 
the elder Dumas, and of Paul de Koch. 
Besides, she had studied English in the 
convent where she was educated, and 
when she got out of it she had seized upon 
Byron and Moore with avidity. She con- 
fessed that the pleasing scenes of Orien- 
talism depicted by them had their in- 
fluence in determining her life. 

After a little preliminary talk on ordi- 
nary topics, she settled down to what she 
considered the chief object of a woman's 
existence, commencing with a romantic 
account of her own great affair of love. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 143 

" Ah, that dear Paris ! " she exclaimed. 
" Hafiz has promised to take me there 
again when this terrible war is over." 
She said this in a tone snfficiently lond 
to attract his attention, and then added, 
" Will yon not, mon cher? " 

" Yes, certainly," he replied, with 
an approving smile. " Yon see," she 
said, turning towards me, "he is still 
under my control. Would you like to 
have me tell you of my first acquain- 
tance with him ? " " Nothing would 
interest me more," I replied, with all 
sincerity. 

" Well, it was five years ago at the 
theatre when I was ravished by the 
divine Rachel in Adrienne. I was away 
from the world and from myself, till be- 
tween the acts, an acquaintance brought 
Hafiz around to my box and presented 
him to me. Then I forgot Rachel, forgot 



1 44 AN AMERICA N TRANSPOR T IN 

Adrienne, forgot myself, forgot every- 
tliing ! He simply looked at me, and I 
only looked at liim. Nothing was said. 
It was all tlie language of tke eyes. It 
was accomplislied in an instant. It was 
tin coup d^ eclair y une fureitr^ une tempete. 
It was at once a beginning and an accom- 
plislied fact. Do tkey know wkat love 
means in America ? " 

Instead of a direct reply, I repeated 
these lines, that the situation brought to 
my remembrance. 

*' Oh, love, sweet despot of the soul ! 
Who would not own thy blest control ? 
What's an eternity of power 
To love's enthralment for one hour ? 
Who shall compare all worldly pelf, 
Fame or ambition, love of self, 
To the warm rapture of one kiss ? 
That moment is an age of bliss ! " 

'' Ah, monsieur," she replied, "you 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 145 

have answered my question. Whoever 
wrote those verses understood the mean- 
ing of the word. That is a good begin- 
ning for love, but one cannot always live in 
a delirium. It would be exhausting. It is 
natural as it is best for the hurricane to sub- 
side and for soft gentle zephyrs to succeed 
it. That is a happier, because a more 
permanent, condition. Thus it is now with 
us. At that supreme moment we thought 
that if we had each other we should never 
want anything more, but now some acces- 
sories are convenient." And she cast a 
sly glance across the room. " For my 
part, I have music, books, dress, jewelry, 
a carriage, and everything that I desire. 
We love each other still, but more sensi- 
bly." Upon my saying that with all the 
surroundings that made her happy she 
must sometimes find Constantinople dull 
after Paris, she assented ; but continued, 



146 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

'' Well, we are going there again for a 
little excitement, and when we return I 
think I shall be quite contented. But I 
am about to tell you what followed that 
grand coup at the theatre. I did not ask 
Hafiz if he was already married, nor did 
he ask me any foolish questions. We 
loved, and that was sufficient. I wished 
to prove his love, although I did not 
doubt it, and so I told him that we must 
be married in a church. He consented. 
I knew he w^ould, as I would have been 
willing to have been married in a mosque. 
I adore Lalla Rookh ; don't you ? Do 
you remember what Hinda said to Haf ed ? 

" Thou for my sake at Allah's shrine, 
And I — at any God's for thine ! " 

Well, I am still a Catholic ; I go to mass 
sometimes, but I don't go to confession 
here, for I have no sins to confess. This 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 147 

kind of life is so quiet that there is no 
temptation or opportunity to sin. Do you 
think Byron was a very maiLvais siijet f " 
I told her I did not think he was so bad as 
he painted himself. " I'll tell you what I 
think about him," she replied. " He was 
a bad man for an Englishman. As a 
Frenchman he would not have been bad. 
In England they place religion before 
love. In Prance love is supreme over 
religion and everything else." 

Our host perhaps thought that this con- 
versation had lasted long enough. He 
walked over to where we were sitting, and 
said, but not in a tone of reproach, " Ma 
femme^ you have been talking a great 
deal about yourself and me." Josephine 
turned her beautiful eyes upon him and 
replied, in a voice devoid of all affectation, 
'' What else could I talk about but that 
which interests me most ? " And I saw 



148 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

by the glance lie returned, that she was 
still 

" His Nourmalial, his harem's light." 

Then we had some more music, and the 
tv/o youngest ladies each executed a pas 
seul. They did not dance with their 
feet, but swayed voluptuously to and fro, 
keeping time to the music with this 
silent music of their own. At last the de- 
lightful evening came to an end, and we 
bade adieu to Hafiz Bff endi and his charm- 
ing family. Most charming of all was 
" Ma femme Josephine y 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 



149 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Two days afterwards I was sent for from 
the Arsenal. News had been received 
from Bupatoria that there was the proba- 
bility of a Russian attack upon the garri- 
son ; that many of the soldiers had died 
and were dying of typhoid fever; that 
provisions were again becoming scarce, 
and that supplies of men and food were 
in urgent demand. 

This time I found old Mustapha very 
much awake. He had laid aside his 
chibook, uncoiled himself, got up from 
the divan, and was pacing the floor in a 
state of actual excitement. Then came 
the usual question, " Have you got your 



150 AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

coal ? " sharply put. *' No, your Bxcel- 
lency, it has been promised but it has 
not yet come." He gave an order to an 
official attendant in an angry tone, and 
then turned to me sa3dng, " Your coal 
will come this afternoon, and to-night you 
will take on board one thousand men and 
five hundred sheep, and sail to-morrow 
morning for Bupatoria." 

I was about to make some remonstrance 
when he waved his hand impatiently as a 
signal for me to take my leave, which I 
did forthwith, and repaired on board to 
communicate the intelligence to Mr. Sears. 

He received it with an extended whistle 
and then observed, " Well, I thought these 
Turkish ways were too good to last. We've 
had an easy time of it so far, but this 
is crowdin' the mourners, I should say. 
Why, the Frenchmen never'd have done 
anything like this." 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 151 

Then he took his log-slate out of the 
drawer and sat down to make figures. He 
knew every inch of room there was in the 
ship from frequent experience in the stow- 
age of men, cattle and cargo, and he now 
made his calculations accordingly. 

After a while he arrived at this re- 
sult : " Allowin' two square foot for a 
man, and providin' the sodjers will stand 
up all the way, and calling every sheep 
a sodjer, providin' he will stand on his 
hind legs, we can just about accommodate 
'em. Sheep won't do that, though. The 
sodjers will take up all the room in the 
between decks and on deck, and the sheep 
will have to go on top o' one another in 
the hold. Why didn't the P'shaw have 
'em killed and skun, so't they could 
go as mutton ? A good many of them 
v/ill be mutton anyway before they get 
there." 



152 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

I remarked that it was too late to 
adopt that expedient, and if there had 
been time for it the Pasha was not in a 
state of mind to entertain the suggestion. 
" 'Pears to me," answered Sears, " from 
the way yon say he looked and acted so 
different from usual, this Bupatoria busi- 
ness wasn't enough to stir him up so. 
Somethin' or 'nother must have happened 
to home. That's what comes of having 
large families." 

" Very likely," I said, " but that does 
not concern us. The question is, can we 
carry all these troops and sheep ? " " No, 
sir, we can't," replied Sears, " but I sup- 
pose we've got to. It's fated that way." 

The coal came alongside in the after- 
noon, and in the course of the evening the 
sheep were driven down the dock and put 
into the hold. And, before morning, we 
received our complement of men, so that 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 153 

we were ready to cast off and go to sea 
soon after day light . 

Some idea of the appearance of tlie 
ship may be formed by looking at a 
Coney Island steamboat as sbe leaves 
the wbarf on a warm Sunday morn- 
ing. The officer in command of tbe 
regiment, answering in rank to our term 
of Colonel, bitterly remonstrated against 
tbis excessive overcrowding. I told bim 
we were obeying tbe Pasha's orders, and 
that I should be greatly obliged if he 
would address his remonstrances to him. 
Whereupon he made a significant gesture 
by squeezing his throat with his fingers, 
that was very suggestive of what might 
happen if he should presume to interfere, 
and remarked with becoming resignation, 
" God is great. His will be done." " Jes' 
so, jes' so," observed Mr. Sears. 

We threaded our way down the Golden 



154 ^^ AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

Horn among tlie fleet, rounded Seraglio 
Point, and pointed up tlie Bosphorus 
against a strong head-wind wliicli veered 
to tlie eastward when we got into the 
Black Sea, where we rolled about in the 
trough of the waves, and there was a con- 
dition of seasickness among the soldiers 
too abominably filthy to be commented 
upon. 

We had proceeded in this way about 
three hours when we made a sail ahead. 
As we drew near to her she proved to be 
a small Xebec, partially dismasted and 
flying a signal of distress. Coming up 
with her, we saw that her deck was 
crowded with men and women, frantic- 
ally waving their arms and shrieking 
at the top of their voices. Upon being 
hailed by the interpreter, they reported 
that they were in a sinking condition and 
wished to abandon their vessel. They 



THE CRIMEAN- WAR. 155 

were from Sukumkale, bound to Constan- 
tinople, and Tiad been blown out of their 
course by a south-westerly gale, had lost 
their mainmast, and had sprung a leak 
that was steadily gaining upon them in 
spite of their pumps. 

Of course there was nothing to be done 
but to lower a lifeboat and take them off. 
The cool-headed old Sears volunteered 
for this duty, and in two trips got them 
all safely on board. 

There were twenty-six in all : eight men 
of the crew, seventeen female passengers, 
and a nondescript. Bvery one, especially 
every woman, was in such a state of 
fright that they were nearly crazy. The 
women were more frightened, if possible, 
when they got on board the steamer than 
they were at the prospect of perishing in 
the sea. They screamed and cowered 
down under the bulwarks of the quarter- 



156 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

deck as tlie crowd of savage soldiers 
pressed in upon them, so tliat I was 
obliged to organize our whole crew as a 
marine guard, armed with capstan-bars, 
heavers, belaying-pins, and whatever came 
to hand to keep them off. Fortunately, 
the arms and ammunition of the troops 
were stowed away aft under the cabin. 

The military officers were too seasick 
and too cowardly to control the mob. Al- 
though an agony of fear distorted the 
features of these poor girls, their exquisite 
beauty shone through their tears. Some 
of them were of the Persian type, with 
lustrous black hair falling over their 
shoulders, dark eyes and silken lashes ; 
others, and these the majority, with 
brown or golden hair, large blue eyes 
and complexions like a peach when the 
dew of the morning is upon it. There 
they crouched down upon the deck, their 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 157 

beautiful heads resting upon the breasts 
of eacli other in the vain endeavor to 
conceal their charms. 

'' What are we going to do with these 
hell-cats? " asked the practical Mr. Sears. 
" If somethin' ain't done they'll jump 
overboard, and I dunno but what that's 
about the best thing they can do." 

" Get them down below as soon as pos- 
sible," I said. '' Whereabouts ? " inquired 
Sears. " The cabin's full o' them Turkish 
officers, and that's the only place there is." 

" Well, get the officers out and the 
women in." 

Sears jumped below, calling two or 
three men of the marine guard after him, 
and in a few moments he got the officers 
out, in spite of their objections, for they 
were too seasick to offer much resistance. 
Leaving the doctor at the door as a senti- 
nel to prevent them from re-entering, he 



I S 8 AN A ME RICA N TEA NSPOR T IN 

put his head out of the companionway, 
calling out : " All clear, sir. If you'll 
get the women along with that old 
nigger that 'pears to have 'em in charge, 
I'll shut 'em all up together." 

By means of the interpreter they were 
made to understand what disposition was 
to be made of them, and the sunshine of 
their eyes beamed through the mist of 
their tears as they followed the " nigger " 
down below. Then Sears locked the door 
and put the key in his pocket, having 
stationed the doctor as a sentinel. 

The cursing and growling of those who 
had been so summarily turned out of their 
quarters was loud and deep. The officers 
and soldiers all had a right to be angry, 
but the man against whom their anger 
should have been directed was doubtless 
smoking his chibook and sipping his 
coffee, squatted on his divan, and more 



7 HE CRIMEAN WAR. i^cj 

sleepy than ever after tlie excitement of 
tlie previous day liad passed off. 

For tliem there was no sleep to be liad, 
unless they got it perpendicularly ; and as 
it was impossible to do very much cooking 
for such a multitude, their only provisions 
were soup, hard-tack and water. Two 
nights were to be passed on board, under 
the conditions of the weather, before we 
could reach Bupatoria. Mr. Sears, the 
purser and I were discussing the situa- 
tion, when we were joined by the chief 
engineer, who reported that one of his 
firemen, a Maltese, who understood Turk- 
ish perfectly well, had told him that there 
was a very ugly feeling among the sol- 
diers on account of their limited accom- 
modations and rations, and of their rough 
handling by the crew since our new pas- 
sengers had come on board, and he did 
not know what might come of it. 



l6o AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

I was not surprised to hear this, for 
I suspected it already. "I'm cur'ous to 
know what they propose to do about it," 
said Sears. " Here we be, and with the 
doctor, the only five white men, as you 
may say, on the ship, the crew bein' mainly 
Frenchmen and the passengers Turks. 
S'posin' it's fated that they should kill us, 
they couldn't navigate the ship, and they 
don't know enough to bile water to keep 
the ingines a-goin' ; but it ain't fated 
that way. They're too seasick to do any- 
thing. They won't do nothin' anyway 
till we git in, and we'd better be kind 
of careful then how we circulate 'round 
ashore till they get their bellies full once 
more and so get good-natured. 

" In the meantime," he asked, " as the 
staysail and trysails have been keeping 
her tolerably steady lately, hadn't we 
better take 'em in and let her roll again 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. i6l 

so's to keep their stomachs out of order ? If 
that ain't enough, perhaps the doctor might 
put a little tartar emetic in the soup." 

The purser had no suggestions to offer ; 
his mind was probably wandering to the 
drawing-room of Hafiz Bffendi, and I 
must confess that I would not have been 
sorry to be there to. 

Our colloquy was interrupted by the 
cry of " Sail ho ! " from the lookout 
at the masthead. " Where away ? " I 
asked. " Right ahead, sir." " Can you 
make her out ? " " Yes, sir ; she is square- 
rigged, under easy sail, and coming this 
way." In a short time we could see her 
from the deck, and it was not long before 
we could distinguish a ship under single 
reefed topsails, a pennant streaming from 
her mainroyal truck, and the British en- 
sign floating from her peak. 



l62 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

She was evidently in no linrry ; but in 
order to make sure that she would heave 
to, I ordered our ensign to be hoisted 
half-mast and Union down, and the Tur- 
kish flag at the fore. This had the desired 
effect, and her main topsail was immedi- 
ately laid to the mast. We slowed down 
to barely steerage way and ranged along- 
side within speaking distance, waiting, 
according to etiquette, for the first hail to 
come from the frigate, as it did. 

" ¥/hat steamer is that ? " " The Wil- 
liam Penn, bound for Bupatoria." '' Are 
you in distress ? " 

*' I will come on board, if you please, 
and inform you." 

'' Very well." 

The quarter-boat was lowered, and tak- 
ing with me some late English news- 
papers that I knew would be most accept- 
able, I was soon alongside and up the 



THE CRIMEAN WAR, 163 

ladder of tlie frigate, where I was met by 
an o£&cer at the gangway, and escorted to 
the Captain on the quarter-deck. 

He was a somewhat elderly man, with a 
rosy complexion, a kindly eye, and the 
traditional mutton-chop whiskers. He 
received me very courteously, extending 
his hand, and saying that he would be 
very happy to be of service if I would tell 
him what we needed. 

''It is a rather long story, sir," I said, 
" but I will try to cut it as short as I can. 
First, however, let me give you these news- 
papers, which you would like to have, as 
they must be later than any that you have 
seen." 

" Thanks, they will be very welcome," 
he replied. " Now, will you step down into 
my cabin? " 

As we entered it he called to his serv- 
ant, " Sherry, two glasses and biscuits." 



1 64 A^ AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

These were at once produced, and we sat 
down at the table. " Now, we'll take a 
glass of wine and then you go ahead," 
said the old Captain. 

As succinctly as possible I told him 
how abominably overcrowded we were 
forced to be when we left Constantinople, 
and then gave him an account of the addi- 
tion we had received a few hours before. 

To all of this he listened with attention 
and manifest interest, frequently interupt- 
ing my narrative with, " Bless my soul ; 
you don't say so ! " and the like. He 
touched the bell for his servant, and said : 
" Put another glass upon the table, and 
then say to the First Lieutenant that I 
should like to see him if he is disengaged." 

The Lieutenant came down at once and 
I was presented to him. " Thorton," said 
the Captain, in the customary familiar 
style of the navy when off duty, " here is 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 165 

a Yankee skipper in trouble — Bless my 
soul, sir," lie said, turning to me, '' pray 
excuse my rudeness, I did not mean it ; 
I should liave said an American Captain." 
" No apology is necessary, sir," I replied. 
'' I am ratker proud of tke title ; you were 
quite right. In the merchant service we 
are called Captains by courtesy amongst 
ourselves, but by the officers of our navy, 
as v/ell as of yours, we are frequently 
called masters, or skippers, if you please." 

" Thank you for taking it so pleasantly," 
he replied, " but it was rude in me never- 
theless. Let's take another glass of 
sherry." If Salisbury and Olney had 
only had a glass of sherry between them, 
it would have done more than all their 
diplomatic correspondence to settle the 
Venezuela dispute. 

At the Captain's request I repeated my 
story to the First Lieutenant as concisely 



l66 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

as I could, for time was valuable to me if 
it was not so to them. Wlien I iiad fin- 
isliedit the Captain proposed the familiar 
question, " What are you going to do about 
it?" 

" I came on board, sir," I replied, " to 
see what you were going to do about it." 

" What can we do about it ? " he rejoined. 

" You can do a great deal, sir," I said. 
" We have saved these women and men 
from drowning, and I would not great- 
ly care if the men had been drowned, 
but the women ! Gentlemen, I wish you 
could have seen them as they are penned 
up in a small cabin to hide them from 
the eyes of a thousand infuriated brutes 
who are threatening us with mutiny ; 
and whose officers, turned out of their 
cabins to take their chance with them 
on the crowded deck, are making no 
attempt to control them. Won't you 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 167 

take tliese poor wretches on board? If 
this wind holds you will be in the Bospho- 
rus to-night, and you can bundle them 
all ashore at Buyukdere." 

The Captain and the Lieutenant agreed 
that carrying passengers would be entire- 
ly contrary to the rules of Her Majesty's 
service. 

" I knov/," I replied, '' what Her Gra- 
cious Majesty, God bless her, if she v/ere 
here present, what every woman in En- 
gland and America would think, and what 
every man would say." " What would 
they say? " asked the Captain. " Damn 
the rules of the service," I replied, " when 
it is a question of humanity." 

It was a bold speech, but it had its effect. 
The two naval officers looked silently at 
each other for a moment, and then the 
Captain brought his fist down on the 
table in a style that made the decanter 



1 68 AN AMERICA N TRANSPOR T IN 

and glasses rattle, as lie said to his 
Lieutenant, " Call away the pinnace, sir, 
and have those people brought on board." 

I thanked him from the bottom of my 
heart. '' No thanks," he said, " you are 
right ; take another glass of sherry and 
we will go on deck and see this thing 
out." 

I there bade him good-bye and was 
hastening to the gangway to get down 
into my boat, when he put his hand on my 
shoulder and said, " But won't you stop to 
introduce us to the ladies ? " 

" Thank you, no," I replied ; ''you can 
introduce yourselves to them, as we did, 
and I am sure they will be more pleased 
to see you than they were to see us." 

The pinnace was already alongside the 
steamer when I reached the gangway. 
'' Now, Mr. Sears," I said, " you can take 
the interpreter down to the cabin, unlock 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 169 

the door, aud tell him to inform that 
colored gentleman and his protegees that 
they are to be transferred to that man-of- 
war, now on her way to Constantinople. 
Get them up as soon as possible, and down 
the ladder into the Bnglishman's boat, 
then pitch their crew in after them." 

Never was Sears more active than he 
was in executing this order. The pinnace 
was soon alongside of the frigate, and we 
saw the bedraggled crowd passed up a 
gangway ladder, and the boat hoisted in. 

Then, as her maintopsail was filled, we 
hoisted our ensign and saluted by running 
it up and down three times, the courtesy 
being returned. In a moment her yards 
were covered with men shaking out the 
reefs, loosing the light sails, and rigging 
out the studdingsail booms. In less than 
five minutes she was under a cloud of can- 
vas, and, as she careened slightly to star- 



1 7 O AN- AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

board, her bright copper was awash, and, 
with a bone in her mouth, she spread away 
to the south. 

''Look at that, look at that!" ex- 
claimed Sears in an ecstasy of delight. 
" That's a sight for the eyes of an old 
sailor. There she goes, without any 
bilers or blacksmith work to push her 
along. See her spread out her own white 
wings like a bird of the air ! God made 
the birds and He learned men to imitate 
'em. The devil learned men to build 
steamboats, and helped 'em out with his 
own hell-fire." 

Having exhausted himself in this burst 
of enthusiasm he subsided into his usual 
taciturnity. The frigate was, indeed, a 
picture to look at, as she clothed herself 
in canvas, and not a voice was heard, and 
no sound came from her, but that of the 
boatswain's whistle. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 171 

Never again will there be exhibited sucli 
seamanship as that of those days. The 
poetry of the ocean has given place to 
prosaic utility, as the beauty of the sail- 
ing ship is now superseded by the down- 
right ugliness of the ironclad, and " white- 
winged messengers of commerce " are 
fast disappearing and giving place to the 
black leviathans that monopolize war and 
trade. 

Bven with the few that remain, the 
double topsail rig, and the three, four, 
and five-masted schooners, are sad de- 
partures from the perfect symmetry of 
the olden type. Soon there will be noth- 
ing left but the disproportionate play- 
things of our grown-up boys. 

The sailor has gone and the black- 
smith has come. In naval war it is now 
only a question of rams and torpedoes, of 
guns that can penetrate any armor, of 



172 AN- AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

armor tliat is impervious to any guns, 
with crews of coal-passers, deck-liands 
and gunners, hammering away till one 
or the other goes to the bottom with her 
thousand men. Our merchant marine is 
gone, but we do not feel the need of it 
as our fathers did, when merchant Cap- 
tains like Hull, Decatur, Perry, Bain- 
bridge, Truxton, and McDonough, with 
crews brought up in the merchant serv- 
ice, gained their victories more by splen- 
did seamanship than by the training of 
guns. 

Mr. Sears came down from his poetic 
exaltation, and busied himself with hav- 
ing the cabin cleansed so that the officers 
might again occupy the quarters from 
which he had so rudely ejected them. 
They had measurably recovered from their 
sea-sickness, and their appetites came to 
them as they were domesticated once 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 173 

more. The best tliat we liad was spread 
before tbem ; soup, sardines, potted meats, 
preserves, and tbe cbampagne that the 
Prophet did not forbid. They made a 
hearty meal, and the Colonel, who was 
a very good fellow at heart, especially 
when his heart was warmed up by 
champagne, then 'went on deck, at my 
request, and made a conciliatory speech to 
the soldiers. He told them that the ship 
was overcrowded on account of a misap- 
prehension on shore of her capacity ; that 
they m.ust bear their sufferings in con- 
sequence of it like true followers of the 
Prophet, and that there would be a con- 
stant supply of soup to the full ability 
of the coppers to turn it out. 

For this purpose some of the sheep 
were killed, and their ears were saved. 
This was with the consent of the special 
supercargo having them in charge. He 



174 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

was to see tliat the five hundred sheep 
were delivered at Bupatoria : if any died 
on the passage he was to cut off their 
ears in order to account for the missing. 
He might have sold a hundred if the 
opportunity had been offered him. The 
whole of his duty was to produce the 
sheep, or the ears of sheep that were not 
delivered. 

So passed the night, and another day 
and another night, hammering against a 
head sea ; and it was bitterly cold as the 
snow flew over the decks, and the men 
crouched down as best they could for 
sleep while their officers were very com- 
fortable in the cabin. 

On the afternoon of the second day we 
arrived at our destined port, and were as 
glad to get rid of our passengers, as they 
were to go ashore. The delivery of the 
sheep as stated in the log-book was 405 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 175 

alive, 190 ears, equal to 95 sheep, total 
500. A few of them had gone into 
the soup, but most of the 95 had been 
smothered or trampled to death in the 
hold. 



fje AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 



CHAPTER IX. 

ThB reinforcement of troops we had 
bronglit up was entirely unnecessary. 
THe Pasha had not asked for them. On 
the contrary, they were very unwelcome, 
as just so many more men were to be fed. 
It was an unfounded rumor that had pro- 
duced the scare at Constantinople. The 
Russians had not the remotest idea of 
regaining Bupatoria at present, for they 
knew that they could not hold it against 
the fleet of the allies that would bombard 
it, and they now had no ships of their 
own to resist them. 

The possession of the place would 
have been as useless to them as it was 
to the Turks, and so they were con- 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 177 

tent to let them keep tlieir white elephant. 
" I wish," said our old friend, " that you 
had brought us up a full cargo of provis- 
ions and coal instead. The sheep are 
more welcome than the troops." 

The weather in February was still as 
cold as when we were here before. The 
little coal we had been able to supply 
from our bunkers was nearly exhausted, 
and the champagne the Prophet did not 
forbid was all gone. His " brother and 
his friend," as he called me, was only too 
happy to turn over to him again all the 
coal that could be spared, and two more 
cases of champagne, for all of which the 
" brother and friend " will candidly ac- 
knowledge that he expected there would 
be some value received. 

One would suppose that we had an 
abundance of champagne for any emer- 
gency, and so we had. In the begin- 



178 AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

ning of tlie war a large quantity of it 
shipped to Odessa had been captured 
in transitu and sold at auction at an 
exceedingly low price. I bought one 
hundred cases of Veuve Cliquot at five 
dollars per case as a speculation, intend- 
ing to sell it again at a large profit ; but I 
concluded that the most advantageous dis- 
position of it was to give much of it away. 
It was accordingly stored at a warehouse 
and drawn upon as occasion required. It 
was the best investment that could have 
been made. 

The mistake of Mustapha Pasha was 
not, however, quite so costly as that made 
at an earlier period by an Englishman, 
whose countrymen made so many notori- 
ous blunders during the war, this among 
the rest. 

In November, 1855, General Vivian 
was in command of the British forces 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 179 

stationed at Kertcii, and General Shirley 
commanded tlie Turkish contingent, 
idling away the time at Buyukdere, where 
he found it rather dull. In one of his 
letters to his old friend Vivian, after dis- 
cussing military affairs, he added some- 
thing about his family, who were likewise 
tired of the monotony. In return he re- 
ceived a short note to this effect, " Bring 
everybody up here; they will be most 
welcome." 

Shirley had forgotten that he had men- 
tioned his family in his despatch, and 
jumped to the conclusion that the Russians 
were threatening Kertch with an attack, 
and that reinforcements were urgently 
needed, whereas the- sole intention of 
General Vivian was to give him, his wife 
and the young ladies an outing. So he 
embarked his three thousand cavalry on 
board a fleet of sailing vessels that were 



l8o AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

taken in tow by steamers, and away 
they all went across tlie Black Sea to 
Kertck. 

Wken General Vivian saw tkis fleet 
coming up tke Straits ke kad no idea from 
wkence it kad sailed or wketker it was 
friend or foe. His anxiety, kowever, was 
soon relieved by Skirley's jumping askore 
and kailing kim witk, " How are you, old 
boy? You see me kere." 

" Yes," answered Vivian, " I was ex- 
pecting you, but wkat tke devil is tke 
meaning of tkis fleet?" 

" Wky, it kas brougkt up my cavalry, 
to be sure," was tke reply. 

" Your cavalry ! Bless your soul, tkere 
isn't a tiling for a korse to eat kere and 
I don't need any kelp." 

An explanation followed. Tke result 
was tkat Skirley's visit was a skort one. 
Tke skips disckarged neitker men nor 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. i8i 

horses, but weighed anchor as soon as 
they had watered, and returned with the 
cavalry to Buyukdere, from whence they 
had come. 

The Pasha at Bupatoria did not exactly 
follow this example, but he was disposed to 
send back a thousand invalids in place of 
the recruits, until he was made by the coal 
and champagne to realize that we could 
furnish accommodations for only three 
hundred men of that class. This number 
was accordingly sent on board and prop- 
erly cared for. They were in a deplor- 
able condition, and it was not surprising 
that several of them died on the passage. 

In the case of the French soldiers who 
died, the burial always took place at sea, 
but this was never consented to by the 
Turks, if it could possibly be avoided. 
In the present instance their feelings 
could be respected, and the bodies were 



l82 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

retained on board till arrival, as tlie 
weather was cold. 

Mr. Sears observed tliat " tbey would 
keep very well if stowed under tbe to'gal- 
lant forc'sle out of the way of the sun." 
When the first was brought on deck, he 
stood looking at his face for a moment and 
then remarked, "I've seen a good many 
dead Frenchmen, but this is the first dead 
Turk I've set my eyes on. I wonder 
where he's gone." 

Sears was a believer in phrenology, 
a science that has an intimate relation 
to his favorite doctrine of fatalism. He 
stooped down and felt his bumps, and 
then turning to the purser, whom he 
knew to be a staunch Presbyterian, he 
remarked, " Reverence is pretty large, 
so I hope he's gone to heaven ; but 
their heaven ain't the same as our'n, with 
halos and crowns and harps and hosannas 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 183 

and hallelujahs and such, is it, Mr.D.? " 
" No," replied the purser. *' Their idea 
of heaven is very different from ours ; it 
is a sensual heaven, with gardens, trees, 

flowers, music, dancing and " " Must 

be kind o' pleasant," interjected Sears. 
'' Yes," continued the purser, " for those 
who have no higher aspirations than to 
live in gardens with houris." " With 
what ! " exclaimed the philosopher ; " what 
are houris ? " *' Houris," was the reply, 
" are supposed to be women somewhat 
like those you called hell-cats the other 
day." Sears shook his head meditatively 
and said, " Well, I reckon our kind o' 
heaven may be a little dull and monoto- 
nous like, but on the whole I'd rather 
put up with it than go to their'n. Bend 
on to him, Bo'sn ; take him for'ard and 
cover him up. Bight bells ! Lay aft, 
two of you, and heave the log." 



184 A^ AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

On arrival I learned that the Bnglish- 
man had not landed his passengers at 
Buyukdere, as I had suggested, but had 
taken them directly down to Constanti- 
nople and turned them over to Mustapha 
Pasha. When I made my usual report at 
the arsenal, I found him coiled up again 
in his customary place on the divan and 
in his habitual mood of silence and self- 
satisfaction. After the questions to which 
I had become accustomed, " When did 
you arrive ? " and " Have you got your 
coal ? " had been answered, I asked : " Did 
your Bxcellency receive some shipwrecked 
people we picked up on the way to Bupa- 
toria? " He nodded his head in assent. 
'' What became of them ? " I inquired, 
Mustapha evidently thought that this was 
none of my business, for his reply was 
very short : " They were — confiscated." 

Comment has been made upon the bad 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 185 

management of the English commissariat 
at Balaklava that entailed such disastrous 
consequences. The only excuses made for 
it were an ignorance of the country and 
the distance from the seat of war. The 
Turks had not these apologies to offer for 
the neglect of their troops at Bupatoria. 
That station was within less than two 
days' sail from Constantinople and easily 
supplied with all the necessaries required. 
The place was captured by the allies 
without any resistance in November, 1854, 
and was strongly fortified on the land side 
against attack from the enemy, should 
they be disposed to regain it, as they 
were when, in the winter that ensued, 
they made an unsuccessful attempt in 
that direction. It is said, upon authority, 
which seems scarcely credible, that the 
failure of the Russian troops in this in- 
stance had such an effect upon the Czar 



l86 AJV AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

that lie died of cHagrin soon after receiv- 
ing tHe news. 

Tlie only object the allies could have 
had in possessing themselves of this in- 
significant port must have been to obtain 
a base of supplies from the rich farming 
country in the interior. For a time this 
scheme v/orked admirably ; the natives 
were almost always ready to sell their 
produce to these new and. eager custom- 
ers, and when they were indisposed to 
do so, foraging parties obtained all they 
desired without cost. There was no let 
or hindrance to this generally beneficial 
commerce till Mentchikoff withdrew a 
large part of his force from Sebastopol, 
for the purpose of harassing his ene- 
mies from the outside and of eventually 
driving them into the sea, as he inef- 
fectually attempted to do in the battles 
of Inkerman and Balaklava. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 187 

Although he was not successful in this, 
he did accomplish the shutting off their 
means of obtaining provisions, and kept 
the road open for abundantly supplying 
his own troops in the field, as well as 
the beleaguered garrison at Sebastopol. 
Bupatoria had been left mainly in charge 
of the Turks and a few companies of 
French soldiers, and it had been left to 
starve. 

My " friend and brother," Azim Pasha, 
had remonstrated as far as he dared, in 
vain, and he and his troops hungered and 
froze with resignation, rather welcoming 
than deploring the sickness that was daily 
depleting their ranks, as it reduced the 
number of mouths to be fed. 

It suited us very well to lie at the dock 
in Constantinople and draw our pay for 
doing nothing, but humanity prompted 
me to induce Hafiz Bffendi to stir up old 



l88 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

Mustaplia to the performance of some part 
of his duty. 

^' The best thing you can do for those 
poor devils up there," I said, "is to 
send them provisions instead of more 
troops. There is no danger of any 
further attack from the Russians, who 
don't want the place any more than you 
ought to want to retain it. They need 
fuel to warm them and food to eat. Fill 
our hold with coal and our betv/een decks 
with groceries and provisions ; give us a 
deck load of sheep and hay, and send us 
off as quickly as you can." 

The Bffendi accordingly awakened 
Mustapha and kept his eyes open long 
enough for him to sign an order to 
this effect, and away we sped to Bupa- 
toria to gladden the hearts of the 
sufferers. My friend and brother, who 
was by this time again out of coal 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 189 

and champagne, received me witli open 
arms. He would be no longer obliged to 
cover Himself witli human comforters and 
to confine himself to hard-tack and cold 
water, but he could keep his house warm, 
treat himself to a cup of coffee, cover 
himself with sheepskins that were as 
acceptable as the mutton that had been 
under them, to say nothing of an occa- 
sional sip of the champagne that the 
Prophet did not forbid. The remainder 
of our service under the Turks may be 
summarized as repetitions of trips like 
this with provisions for Kupatoria, and 
returning with invalids. 

The news of peace being declared 
reached us on the 2d day of April, 1856. 
The event had been anticipated for a long 
time, and, in business parlance, had been 
discounted by all the belligerents who, 
excepting the English, had come to the 



igo AN AMERICAN TRANSPOR T IN 

wise conclusion that it was folly to sacri- 
fice any more lives in useless warfare. 

The Bnglisli were opposed to a speedy 
termination of hostilities, while the French 
were anxious to bring them to a close. 
The elan with which they had gone 
into the war had long since subsided. 
On the other hand, the mistakes the 
English had made, and their suffering in 
consequence of them, had taught them 
some salutary lessons. In short, it may 
be said that at this period the French 
had become tired and demoralized, where- 
as the English, with bull-dog pertina- 
city, had just got themselves into good 
fighting trim. The French were ready 
to leave off ; the English were ready to 
begin afresh. The news was therefore 
hailed with joy by the French, and received 
by the English as a bitter pill that 
Napoleon obliged them to swallow. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 191 

He knew full well the conditions to 
wliich each, party had arrived, that the 
superiority of his troops could no longer be 
maintained, and that if any more victories 
were to be won, the English would be 
entitled to the credit. From first to last 
his army had not only been fighting 
the Russians, but it had been engaged 
in humiliating the English, and this 
process was as much a source of satis- 
faction to him as were his victories over 
the common enemy. 

The land forces of the French being 
the most numerous, their generals natu- 
rally exercised a greater control. This 
was made manifest in things both great 
and small. It was a luxury for the 
French to supply the deficient commis- 
sariat of the English, and it was their 
policy to place them at disadvantage in 
battle, as they did in the culminating 



192 AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

event of the war, when, as has been 
already related, the English were re- 
pulsed at the Redan, while the F^rench tri- 
umphantly scaled the Malakoff. French 
and English alike held the Turks in de- 
rision. All three of them had a greater 
respect for the Russians than for each 
other. 

But the British navy did excite the ad- 
miration and envy of the French. They 
learned some useful lessons in seaman- 
ship from their association with it. But 
it was in vain that their ships endeavored 
to rival those of the English in naval 
tactics and evolutions. 

It must not be forgotten that 1855 was 
still the era of sailing ships in the navies 
as well as in the mercantile marines of 
the world — a surviving era of a now 
almost forgotten seamanship. It was a 
study to see an English and French line- 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 193 

of-battle ship or frigate coming to anchor 
together. On board the former, silently 
and as if by magic, every sail was furled 
at once before the Frenchmen could man 
their yards and gather up the bunts, 
chattering all the while like a lot of 
magpies, and all apparently giving orders 
to each other. Happily for the French, 
they are now on more even terms, as 
seamanship is no longer required. 

There is a general impression that the 
introduction of iron-clads commenced with 
the plating of the Merrimac and the build- 
ing of the Monitor. This is not true, for 
there was a rude beginning made by the 
English in this war. 

Two iron-clads were sent out from Bn- 
gland in tow, although they had limited 
steam-power of their own. They were 
wooden vessels plated over with iron 
sheets not more than an inch thick, with 



194 ^^ AMERICAN TRANSPORT IN 

Open bulwarks, and decks rounded up so 
tliat a skell miglit roll into tke water 
in case it did not immediately explode. 

They floated almost as low as rafts. 
At tke reduction of Kinbourn the masts 
were taken out of them and they were 
towed as far as it was prudent for the 
tugs to accompany them, and then they 
propelled themselves under the batteries 
which they successfully silenced. 

I do not know what became of them 
afterwards, or if they were ever again 
brought into requisition. They have prob- 
ably been broken up long ago, but they 
should have been preserved to appear in 
future naval exhibits where they would 
attract as much attention alongside of a 
modern battle-ship as did the first railroad 
engine by the side of one of the latest con- 
struction at the World's Fair in Chicago. 

The navy played but a small part in 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 195 

the Crimean War. Almost its only use 
was to prevent tlie exit of the Russian 
fleet from Sebastopol, which would have 
been disastrous to the seaports in its 
neighborhood occupied by the Allies, and 
to the transports that brought their sup- 
plies of men, munitions and provisions. 

As to the Russian fleet, it had accom- 
plished its purpose of annihilating that of 
the Turks at Sinope before the Allies 
made their appearance in the Black Sea. 
After that, it retired to the harbor of 
Sebastopol to await the course of events. 
When the fortune of war at last went 
against the Russians, as we have seen, 
their ships were scuttled and sunk. 

In bringing this narrative of personal 
experiences and of the great events to 
which they were incident quorum parva 
pars fui^ to a close, the writer may be 
permitted to chronicle succinctly his own 



196 AN AMERTCAN TRANSPORT IN 

conclusions. They may not be those of 
the historian, the statesman or the poli- 
tician. They claim no such authority. 
They simply emanate from the quarter- 
deck of an American transport steamer. 

The Allies certainly succeeded in curb- 
ing Russia's designs upon Turkey and 
in postponing the inevitable for a time. 
The life of the " sick man " has been 
prolonged forty years, but the sick man 
is bound sooner or later to die. The ques- 
tion is, whether it would not have been 
better for the world if he had yielded up 
the ghost in 1854, v/hen Nicholas diag- 
nosed his case and said to the British 
ambassador at his court in almost so 
many words, " Leave him to me ; you 
shall have Egypt, and I will guarantee 
you that, and your Indian possessions, 
for all time." 

England knew that she could not make 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 197 

a better bargain for herself tban tbis, 
provided it could bave been carried out. 
But unfortunately for ber, tbe star of tbe 
tbird Napoleon was at tbat time in tbe 
ascendant. 

It was a mean estimate of bim tbat 
was made after tbe day of Sedan to say 
tbat " be went up like a rocket and 
came down like a stick." He did go up 
like a rocket, but be stayed up in tbe 
zenitb of bis splendor and power for 
twenty years. England feared bim be- 
fore tbe Crimean War, during tbe war, 
and for a long time afterwards. All 
Europe was afraid of bim ; and we, too, 
were a little afraid of bim ourselves, dur- 
ing our family quarrel. 

Now tbat be bas gone and tbe inordinate 
pride of France bas been somewbat bum- 
bled, perbaps tbere may soon be a recon- 
struction of tbe map of tbe eastern con- 



igS AN AMERICAN TRANSPORT. 

tinent, and tlie second Nicliolas may invite 
England to accede to his terms. If this 
should come to pass, I can only commend 
to my good friends, the Turks, whom I 
shall always hold in kindly remembrance, 
a graceful submission to their own doc- 
trine of fatalism, which Mr. Sears was 
wont to consider their crowning virtue. 

TH^ KND. 



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